AR Game and Fish and AR Natural Heritage Commissions
I contacted the local ArGFC here in Lonoke because I wanted to put a cache at the Joe Hogan Fish Hatchery and they also sent me to a "name" in Little Rock (I'm referring to HarleyHogs post in the post about the newspaper articles that Arkansas Stickerdude started. See bottom of this post for what he said). That person had heard of Geocaching and said they knew what it was and what the Arkansas Parks Department had agreed to. They had discussed it with their attorneys and were in the stages of drawing up procedures for geocaching in Arkansas, BUT only ArGFC employees would be allowed to place/own a cache on their properties. Now that is just what he told me. I can't find where I put his number or his name but if I find it I will post it so you can see what who I talked to. This was about a month ago now.
http://www.agfc.com/education/geocaching.html
I also am trying to make contact with the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and have been given a contact (Doug Fletcher) with them by a friend (Tom Foti) that works ANHC, but he (Doug) has not returned my phone call yet. Tom told me that at the moment they were not happy with Geocaching because they have found some caches that were placed on their properties without permission and the area around the cache had been damaged. I explained it in greater detail to Tom and told him what the State Parks allow and he felt the ANHC might go for a permitted system like that, if it gets explained to them.
http://www.naturalheritage.org/
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harleyhogs
I guess you have had better luck with the Ark Game and Fish Commission than I have.
I was going to set out a cache on a G/F River Access area, so I called the local G/F Biologist Office to obtain approval for the cache. They had no idea what I was talking about. They referred me to Little Rock.
Before calling I went to the GF website. Wow there was a article about Geocaching :lol: . Well I called and I went thru 3 different people to find one that had heard of Geocaching. Well to make a long story short someone took my phone number and would have someone call me back. That has been over a month ago. You would think that if the G/F had a web page dealing with Geocaching that their people would be a little better informed.
I guess what my main point is we need to education the people about the positive aspects of Geocaching as a sport / hobby. We need to inform individuals that this is not only an individual sport / hobby, that caching can also be done as a family or group event. 8O
Im coming into this discussion rather late I know...
Hey folks,
Im rather new at geocaching but a few of you have met me at the Tri-States meeting a few months back in Fayetteville. I wanted to put in my 0.02 worth since I have direct relation to this post. I work for Arkansas State Parks so I have alot of people I could get ahold of if you guys are further pursuing this issue with Game and Fish and the Natural Heritage Commission. Both agencies co-manage several properties with AR State Parks so there is common ground I think between the new State Park geocaching policy and what could be done on Game and Fish and/or Natural Heritage Commission land. If anyone wants to further contact tackle this issue shoot me an email...
Craig :D
Presentations and Contacts
I would be glad to present the program. I am planning on developing one anyway for use at my park for interpretive/educational purposes. I have developed Powerpoint programs before, but if you wanna do it Lady Engineer thats fine. Holler if you want help.
Ill see what I can come up with on a list of contact people at each agency.
here is the link to the Game and Fish Commissioners...
http://www.agfc.com/agfc/commission_board.html
Staff list for Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission
http://www.naturalheritage.org/about/st ... _staff.asp
Craig
Wildlife Management Areas
I have been reading on this and other websites to try and determine if Geocaching is something I would like to get involved in. This thread caught my eye and is very disturbing. I don't think that very many people have any idea just how much land AG&FC controls. Just for instance in the Ozarks. If you go east from Highway 71. Nearly all of the Ozarks that is not private land is either in the White Rock Management area or the Ozark National Forest WMA. That is probably in excess of 300,000 acres. Looking at caches on Geocach.com many, many of the caches fall into that area. Another example is Mt. Magazine. Except for private land and the state park, nearly all is a WMA. And in many of these areas the AG&FC shares control with the Forest Service. So I guess one agency could say go ahead and the other agency would say no way.
Since the Forest with it's wonderful hiking trails was my main area of interest, I suppose I will just wait and watch for awhile before I jump in. :cry:
By the way, a great site.
Gersteacker