Permissions, Restrictions and Land Use Agreements

It occured to me when answering a post in a related thread that even I don't have ALL of the info on land use in Arkansas, making it difficult for both you the cacher and I the Reviewer to know and abide by the rules.

In this thread I will post the Permissions, Restrictions and Land Use Agreements that I know of and ask you to augment them with any areas I miss or any permissions, permit procedures or restrictions that I may be unaware of.

Once we work out a comprehensive list I will publish it to these forums, to geocaching.com and as a seperate web page for everyone to reference.

I cache in many states and can tell you that we have been lucky so far - many states are bound by many and minute rules and regulations, prohibitions and restrictions that we do not have in Arkansas.

These mainly came about due to a laissez-faire attitude towards getting permission and poor adherence to landowners wishes in the early days of geocaching.

We do not have much of that here, and do not want to, so an educated geocaching public and a policy of self-policing and adherence to the known rules benefits us all.

Here's what I know at the moment:

Arkansas State Parks - Get permit info and forms at http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/things/geocache/

BLM -- geocaching is allowed on many Bureau of Land Management lands, but you need to ask permission first.

National Parks Service -- geocaching is not allowed in National Parks (but feel free to ask your park manager nicely, just in case... Park Managers do have discretion, but permission must be written).
NPS policy statement here, http://home.earthlink.net/~rsgeek/NPS010321_report.html

National Forest Service -- geocaching is generally allowed in the non-wilderness portions of National Forests, but always ask the given forest's manager first. The U.S. Forest Service has this FAQ response on-line in reference to geocaching:

Quote:
While geocaching is NOT an appropriate use of a designated Wilderness Area, it is increasing in popularity in general forest areas. You must remember to follow all existing regulations when placing or looking for caches. This includes understanding and following all motor vehicle restrictions, avoiding damage to trees or roots, avoiding impacts to streams, wetlands and lakeshores, and minimizing your impacts on other forest visitors. Recreational public use of National Forests is intended to be short-term and low-impact, so that the many other forest visitors have an opportunity to enjoy the same lands also. Permanent or long-term structures or improvements are not allowed. If you are unsure about whether geocaching is appropriate in a certain area, please contact the local Forest office and ask.


U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service -- geocaching in any form is not allowed in Fish & Wildlife Service lands (i.e., National Wildlife Refuges)


Please, under no circumstances place a cache on forbidden land and hope it will slip by un-noticed!

It might, for a while, but in the end it will only serve to give geocaching a black eye and endanger our existing agreements and ongoing negotiations with land managers.

Thanks in advance for your input.
Ed

As an adjunct to creating a comprehensive Arkansas Land Use Guide, I could use Arkansans help with maps that show all of the restricted lands.

I use a wide variety of maps for reviewing but no one map has all of the lands shown. If I suspect a new listing to be on restricted land I may have to look at four or five maps to verify or disprove that theory.

If I have that much trouble identifying these lands I suspect that you do as well!

We may have to build a composite map or one of you may have or know of a map that shows all of the lands mentioned in the previous post.

Any help with this effort will be appreciated and will benefit us all.

Thanks,
Ed

This is a cross posting from the "sticky" permission topic above.

Quote:

---

NatureFish wrote:

Permission to hide a cache is becoming a real and dangerous issue in our game... enough so that I want to highlight the requirement here!
......
It is in fact the first line of the Guidelines.
......
If anything threatens our game it is caches hidden without permission.

---

Two years ago I was told by a skeptical land manager that I would have to make my request before the full City Council (which I never did.) On another occasion I was flat denied by a different land manager. There are now caches in both of these areas. Granted, attitudes could have changed since then but I fear that too often we are too quick to check off the check boxes without complying with all the requirements, in particular the requirement for permission.

Even though I am sure the residents would not object, cemeteries probably have an owner or manager that might have definite feelings one way or the other (and I love cemetery caches).

Geezer
(Yep, this time I'm being a real Geezer)

Here's some info provided by BackPackinJack

QUOTE
Army Corps of Engineers Little Rock District:
http://www.swl.usace.army.mil/parks/index.html
Little Rock District is among the most visited Corps districts in the nation. The district operates nearly 180 public parks and access areas in Arkansas and southern Missouri. Our 25 multi-purpose lakes and navigation pools, combined with our project lands, provide nearly 500,000 acres of public land and water that offer a full range of outdoor recreation opportunities.
(The above is copied from their site)

Subject
Army Corps Of Engineers land usage for caching in Arkansas:

The corps is divided into sections and they seem to be separate in their missions, objectives, and rules. The “Cachecrazies” near Mountain Home worked with and got the corps up there to allow caching in their section.

I don't know their boundry.

Contact Information
Mountain Home Project Office
324 W. 7th Street
Mountain Home, AR 72653
(870) 425-2700


I worked with and got permission to place caches in the southern Arkansas River section headquartered at Pine Bluff.

Contact Information:
Pine Bluff Project Office
P.O. Box 7835
Pine Bluff, AR 71611
(870) 534-0451

This office is responsible for managing parks on the Arkansas River area from Wilbur D. Mills Lock & Dam in Little Rock to the confluence of the Arkansas River, the White River and the Mississippi River.

When I approached them they didn’t know what I was talking about because each section takes care of it’s own business. I explained caching and when allowed to place caches I sent them a folder with pictures of the caches and their contents plus the cache pages as listed at GC.

I updated them by mail, phone and visit with the new postings about how people enjoyed caching in their parks and along their nature trails. I have talked to both Corps Rangers on the phone and met one in person.

This mailed folder serves two purposes as I see it, they get to see how environmentally conscious we cachers are ((by picking up trash, etc.) and so does everyone who sees the folder) plus this method leaves a paper trail just in case there is ever any question as to how or if it was allowed.

This is the same approach I use for all the local police, by furnishing them with a folder containing all the locations of, info about, and pictures of the caches in their area.
ENDQUOTE

NOTE: These permissions were for HIS caches alone. This info is posted here as suggestion and contact info, an excellent and recomended course of action and example of how you can ask for permision for your hides.

Thanks BPNJ, good work!
Ed