Geocaching Colorado

Here's some good news for Boulder County: Caches on county open space do not have to be always removed after 6 months, they can be just moved and re-registered. This means some caches can get some history.

I just planted a cache in boulder county open space that went smoothly, both with the county and with geocaching.com. I then sent the county rangers an email with this question:

If I just move the cache to another location a few hundred feet away from the original location does that meet your requirement of removing a cache and placing another?

Their answer:

Thanks so much for writing to Boulder County Parks and Open Space. This from our ranger in charge of geocaching:
You can just move the cache and then re-register with the new coordinates. 
You do need to register the cache again after the expiration date so that it has a new registration number (that is important). 
Our policy does not mention how far they need to be moved if you are registering your cache again after the expiration date, but please monitor the area for resource damage. 
If the area where this cache is begins to get beaten down by people, it will have to be moved siginificantly (but it doesn't sound like that will be a problem).
Please feel free to contact me or Amanda Hatfield at ahatfield@bouldercounty.org, or 303-678-6350, if you have any more questions about geocaching.

Vivienne Jannatpour (vjannatpour@co.boulder.co.us)

 

now if only the city would be half as accommodating.

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"It's good to be the King" - Mel Brooks

Thanks for the update! :-D

Good news and with such approachable g-men (and women...)
I did enjoy living in Louisville way-back-when. Still an excellent place to visit as well.
Nice to see their implementing some accommodating policy for us geocachers.

Don't even get me started on The Republic of Colorado...;-)

Edited: fur speeling...

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Colorado Native | Geocaching since Dec 2003 | Founding plus past Board Member of GCCO

I've been trying to get ahold of someone in Boulder County regarding a CITO event.  So far I haven't received a reply.  I lost my contact there last year. 

Anyone know someone there that would help facilitate a CITO event?  Is Amanda the right person?

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Team Laxson:

I've been trying to get ahold of someone in Boulder County regarding a CITO event.  So far I haven't received a reply.  I lost my contact there last year. 

Anyone know someone there that would help facilitate a CITO event?  Is Amanda the right person?

 

The Ranger that I've been in touch with is: White, Christopher cwhite (at) bouldercounty.org

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It's all about the people!

I'm assuming if someone doesn't register their cache, it will get confiscated. On March 20th EMNOLI was removed by the OSMP ranger.  I'm assuming it was for a justified reason. I was a little concerned because I had just dropped off a TB the week prior to it being removed.  If the ranger had noticed the geocaching community that this cache was going to be removed, then someone could have at least removed the property that belongs to the geocaching community.

I sent an email to the ranger in hopes that I could retrieve the TB and continue its travels to another cache.  I was told that the cache owner was being contacted, etc. etc. etc.  Anyway, I'd like to propose my view of cache ownership.

When a cache is placed, the owner provides the container and the log book.  These two items (and maybe a pen or pencil) are the owned items.  The swag, geocoins, and TBs placed in a cache and is given to the geocaching community for the purpose of trade and/or travel. There are specific owners of the Travelers; however, these items are entrusted to the community, who takes possession for a temporary period of time in order to move them to a new location (hopefully in fulfillment of their goal). Toys and other swag items are for trade or for move-along to other caches as the individual geocacher sees fit.  They are encouraged to trade-even; but the ownership of these items belongs to the community to do as they see fit (keeping one item and replacing it with another item of unknown value (sometimes more, sometimes less), or just leaving another trade item for the next cacher.

So, in summary, IMHO the container and log belong to the cache owner. All other content is entrusted to the geocaching community to disposition as they see fit.  With this definition, I believe that any geocacher could take temporary ownership of swag and travelers in order to keep them moving within the community. We usually just take temporary ownership of one or two items at a time to move along or trade, but in the case of a confiscated cache or one that is about to be removed, a geocacher (whoever is closest and willing to help) could take temporary ownership to help the Boulder county rangers disposition the contents appropriately for the good of both the county and the geocaching community.

.... Gerry

Eighth Generation American:

I'm assuming if someone doesn't register their cache, it will get confiscated. On March 20th EMNOLI was removed by the OSMP ranger.  I'm assuming it was for a justified reason. I was a little concerned because I had just dropped off a TB the week prior to it being removed.  If the ranger had noticed the geocaching community that this cache was going to be removed, then someone could have at least removed the property that belongs to the geocaching community.

I sent an email to the ranger in hopes that I could retrieve the TB and continue its travels to another cache.  I was told that the cache owner was being contacted, etc. etc. etc.  Anyway, I'd like to propose my view of cache ownership.

When a cache is placed, the owner provides the container and the log book.  These two items (and maybe a pen or pencil) are the owned items.  The swag, geocoins, and TBs placed in a cache and is given to the geocaching community for the purpose of trade and/or travel. There are specific owners of the Travelers; however, these items are entrusted to the community, who takes possession for a temporary period of time in order to move them to a new location (hopefully in fulfillment of their goal). Toys and other swag items are for trade or for move-along to other caches as the individual geocacher sees fit.  They are encouraged to trade-even; but the ownership of these items belongs to the community to do as they see fit (keeping one item and replacing it with another item of unknown value (sometimes more, sometimes less), or just leaving another trade item for the next cacher.

So, in summary, IMHO the container and log belong to the cache owner. All other content is entrusted to the geocaching community to disposition as they see fit.  With this definition, I believe that any geocacher could take temporary ownership of swag and travelers in order to keep them moving within the community. We usually just take temporary ownership of one or two items at a time to move along or trade, but in the case of a confiscated cache or one that is about to be removed, a geocacher (whoever is closest and willing to help) could take temporary ownership to help the Boulder county rangers disposition the contents appropriately for the good of both the county and the geocaching community.

.... Gerry

Eighth Generation American,

If you place a cache on Boulder County Open space and don't register it, the Reviewer won't publish it. 

As for EMNOLI being confiscated by OSMP Ranger, that's Boulder City, not Boulder County.  There's been a few caches that have been pulled by OSMP,

As for cache ownership, I agree with you; it is 'owned' by the cache hider, and I'd say all contents inside the container have no 'owner' (with the excpetion of Travel bugs/Geocoins).

But in the end, we're playing on 'owned' lands.  If the land owners don't want caches placed their, they supercede all other ownerships.

For example, if something is placed (cache, spare tire, letterbox, or litter) on 'owned' land,  it is up to the propery manager/owner to decide what action to take; leave it be, remove it, ect.)

We can only hope that, if the item is a geocache:
    - The (private) property owner is aware and has already granted permission to have the item there.
    - The (public) land manager is aware that a cache has been placed, and it adheres to all their listed guildelines for such an activity.

The challenge with Boulder City is their policy on geocaching on their lands isn't really public, nor is it consistant.  Some of the caches OSMP has pulled have been around since 2004 and just now was removed.

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It looks like three different topics here. I don't mind discussing the city and county of Boulder here, but the "ownership' should be as its own topic.

As TL said, OSMP ranger is city and EMNOLI was on city open space. The city recently revised its statement to reflect its long standing intentions. If you check the Boulder City geocaching page, it now only allows for virtuals. Earlier, the page only said to tread lightly and watch out for flowers. Last week I met with the OSMP Ranger at his office to retreive a container of mine (Vince's Royal). It is the city's intention to pull all caches from city open space land. There is one ranger assigned to the task and each week he collects some. He will only allow for the cache owner to get back the container and all within since that is what the confiscation rules allow. I had to sign a form (in triplicate) listing all the items that were returned to me. I planted the seed that the TBs need to be freed (not fried or fired) and I could be a contact to do that if the cache 'owners' did not come by to collect the container and all within.

Now, the ranger did provide me with the person in charge of setting the current policy and I will contact her and arrange for a meeting week after next. If anyone wishes to go with me please let me know. My plans are to question the current policy and work towards developing a freindlier one.

About the county and its policy; I say yea, yay and yeah again. If the city would adopt something like this or what JeffCo has then there would be more happy geocachers around Boulder.

Questions, comments?

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"It's good to be the King" - Mel Brooks

I'm moving back to CO after being away for more than a decade.  As I read the Boulder county caching dictate, I can only hope the rest of CO isn't as Gestapo'esque as the managers in Boulder....

BadAndy:

I'm moving back to CO after being away for more than a decade.  As I read the Boulder county caching dictate, I can only hope the rest of CO isn't as Gestapo'esque as the managers in Boulder....

Welcome back to Colorado! 

Boulder is an interesting area, and we are fighting with years of inaccurate information that has developed local policies.  Good news is that Boulder County is working with GCCO to foster the relationship.

Boulder City....well, we're still working on that one........

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