I spoke with my friend who arbitrates issues between organizations and the NFS. She thinks either an element of the service is having problems with caching (geotrails in sensitive areas, rearranging the environs when placing caches, etc..) or they feel it is an opportunity to tap a revenue stream in cash strapped times. She also feels it will take a good deal of effort (persistent and time consuming) to resend a policy once it is in place, but that it may be worth a try.
Lastly, she poses the issue if influence. Apparently, the service is sensitive to input from the public and public officials, who are influenced by their constituents. In other issues, mass mailings to the NFS and the effected congressional delegation did seem effective in altering policy.
As an aside, one of her case study areas for an off road vehicle use issue was the ONF. Their policies are polar to those of Ozark NF and most other forest areas. Outlier of sorts. May be the case in geocaching?