Game and Fish Wildlife Mgmt Areas

[TeamMGGPS]

Does anyone know of a policy restricting placing a GC on AGFC-WMA's?
I have seen the GC's that the AGFC has placed on their wesite.
But I didn't see anything about the public putting out caches in these type areas?
Thanks,
Team MGGPS

[Gaddiel]

Does anyone know of a policy restricting placing a GC on AGFC-WMA's?
I have seen the GC's that the AGFC has placed on their wesite.
But I didn't see anything about the public putting out caches in these type areas?
Thanks,
Team MGGPS

I've heard both "yes" and "no". We got permission for a cache on a WMA (archived now) from some local AG&FC personnel, but I know someone else that was told that NO geocaches were allowed on AG&FC land.

As far as I know, there is no official policy in place.

[BACKPACKNJACK]

As best I recall (man I use that a lot :oops: ) there was a cache at Bell Slough and the AG&FC was considering placing caches themselves to have complete control of them not just permits control. I guess they don’t know how close most of us keep up with our caches.
Those who have contacted them most recently may update us (because of your post) on the latest position of the Game and Fish commission.
It would be of interest to many of us, thanks for bringing it up again.

[LadyEngineer]

http://www.arkgeocaching.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=165&highlight=&sid=1f2089685f055a8e9fa6674426c88675

Check this thread out about the Arkansas Game and Fish cache rules. I had investigated it back then and was told that ONLY AGFC employees would be allowed to place caches on AGFC land which includes WMAs. I have not checked in recent months to see if they have changed their stance on this issue. They do not have any posted rules on the website about it.

LE

[TeamMGGPS]

Thanks Lady-E. I thought there was a thread awhile back but I couldn't find it. Let me know if you hear anything.
Team MGGPS

[NatureFish]

Sorry for the delay, I am gathering info from all previous Reviewers and TPTB at Groundspeak to formulate an accurate and concise answer for this very important topic.

I am aware of some restrictions and regulations, but this post makes me want to question their currency and accuracy.

I will have all known listing and hiding rules posted within a few days.

Thank you for your patience,
Ed

[rock_hound]

Naturefish,

Your post was a little confusing. Please clarify. Was this posted to the correct thread?

[NatureFish]

Sorry if I confused anyone!

As a Volunteer Reviewer it is my responsibility to learn the restrictions, rules and regulations regarding the hiding and access of geocaches that may affect geocaching in the states that I review.

It is my further responsibility to post those rules in a forum for all Groundspeak Volunteer Reviewers, as any Reviewer may be called upon to cover any state or country for an off-duty Reviewer at any given time.

It is my responsibility to assure that all placements meet federal, state and local regulations as well as the Groundspeak Geocache Listing Guidelines.

Lastly, it is my responsibility to teach geocachers these rules and to promote the sport by assuring land managers that we are aware of, sensitive to and dedicated to abiding by any requirements they may impose for geocaching on their lands.

So far I am aware of hiding rules in Arkansas by the National Parks Service, State Parks, Hot Springs Historical Area and now, due to this thread, pending regulations by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

LadyEngineer and others have those negotiations well in hand, and if / when any placement or access requlations result she will post them here and I will post them to all Reviewers.

I hope this clarifies my apology for being unable to immediately answer the OP - It's my job to know these things!!

Ed

[TeamMGGPS]

Thanks to all for checking on this.
Team MGGPS

Has there been any news on this front? I never realized what huge swaths of land WMA's cover until I started checking some old topo maps I have looking for good caching areas.

Some of them don't even make sense as a WMA. How much wildlife can you "preserve" at a public access boat dock on a major lake? Surely stopping by and logging a cache isn't any more invasive than launching a motorboat.

[LadyEngineer]

I had several conversations with Lucy Moreland back in November. She was suppose to get a gc account for AGFC and get their caches posted on gc so more people would know they are there and come hunt them. I have been waiting on her to call me back. I will try today to contact her again, but I don't want to bug her, as this may seem offensive and I don't want her to be on the defensive about geocaching. I will let you know if I hear of anything.

LE

I found a website where the AGFC posts their own caches, seven of them I think. But I mean come on...seven? With all the land AGFC controls?

I don't want to put them off the idea of having caches either...I just think they could make better use of the land we-the-people have entrusted them with.

I don't mind being a responsible user of the land, in fact I'm pretty dead set on being low impact everywhere I go, as I'm sure most cachers are. I'm all in favor of having to get a permit and approval by someone in charge of the area, it is just that there is no real reason why cachers can't place their own.

There are three different WMA's I've already noticed on the topo-maps within 15 minutes of me where the AGFC allows people to drive all around, park, put boats in the water, go fishing off piers, even ride ATV's through some of them but won't allow a cache to be placed unless they do it themselves. At a rough guess there are over 75 square miles of land with numerous boat docks, piers and trails in those three areas alone.

Surely it would be less work to check the location a cacher wants to place a cache to see if it is acceptable and hack off on a permit than it is to create and place their own.

[Gaddiel]

I agree. I think the obstacle is that they are simply uninformed about what geocaching is, how it works, and our commitment to being an "environment-friendly" group.

We should work to get the word out to ALL landowners that geocaching can HELP them, not hurt them. The committee has been discussing the best ways that we can go about this, and we would love to hear everyone's ideas.

The situation with AG&FC is one that could easily go either way. They could embrace the geocaching community and start using us as a resource, or they could reject us and create a policy that would ban geocaches on all AG&FC lands. For this reason, I'd like them to see an organized, professional "face" of ArkGeo right off the bat. We have some inroads now, and hopefully this will lead to increased trust over time.

I also think (for what it's worth) that our goal should be an AG&FC policy to allow geocaching. We can do this by showing them our commitment to preserve Arkansas lands (CITO, for example) and by demonstrating to them that we can be beneficial to their cause.

What do the rest of you think?

[LadyEngineer]

ar_kayaker,

Please see the comments made about the AGFC in the thread below:

http://www.arkgeocaching.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=165&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15&sid=c8e2600ffce7b347c32b7537a5ab11dd

This should explain why I posted what I did about bugging Mrs. Moreland. This two threads should actually be one and some very important information is in each of the two threads.

I have placed a call to Mrs. Moreland, but reached her voice mail. Hopefully she will call me back.

LE