I think we need to clarify our terminology. There are several
federal land agencies with a variety of purposes.
National Parks are foremost to "preserve" a national treasure -
sometimes natural & scenic; sometimes historic. In National Parks
there is no hunting, no oil drilling, no timber cutting. In this
day & age when environmental issues have very low priority with our
government most parks are in a sad state. Visitor numbers continue
to rise but with budget cuts there is less money for maintenance to
stay nothing of upgrading facilities or even maintaining adequate
staff.
National Forests run by an entirely different agency, the US Forest
Service in the Department of Agriculture, are managed for multiple
use. Such uses include extractive activities such as mining &
logging, hunting, trapping as well as recreational activities such
as camping, hiking, wildlife watching, skiing, snowmobiling and so
forth. In general Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands are managed
similar to national forests for multiple use. There is also a whole
other class of federal property - National Wildlife Refuges. They
often have restrictions to protect the wildlife they are managing
but also encourage visitors & I plan to place some boxes at several
refuges in my area this summer.
As with cemetaries it would be possible to encourage people to visit
national parks to get information that they need to solve the clues
& then hide the box itself in another nearby location. I know that
they are in fact geocaches in national parks but they are "virtual"
caches where the person has to obtain information from a sign &
relay it to the cache placer to get credit for the find. There is
no actual box at the location.
Okay I'll get off my soap box now & go back to carving a stamp for
my wildlife refuge box.
mt walker
LBing & National Parks
2 messages in this thread |
Started on 2004-03-05
RE: LBing & National Parks
From: quarksmom (quarksmom@earthlink.net) |
Date: 2004-03-05 20:57:43 UTC
Re: LBing & National Parks
From: Lady Hydrangea Prisspott nee Hedge (lady_prisspott@yahoo.com) |
Date: 2004-03-05 22:13:19 UTC
You are quite right Quarks mom; point taken. I can't think of any
National Parks that allow "extractive" activity. However I have gone
hiking, biking, camping, and rock climbing in National Parks where
these activities are permitted. In fact I live near the C&O Canal
National Park and use it often. Their own web site lists the
following as activities you can enjoy there:
Backpacking Biking Bird Watching Boating Camping Climbing Cross
Country Skiing Fishing Hiking Horseback Riding Interpretive Programs
Kayaking Nature Walks Wildlife Viewing.
Facilities have been built to accommodate many of these activities
such as campsites with toilets, water supply, and electrical
hookups, boat ramps, stables, and bridges. How do any of these
present any less environmental impact than a Tupperware box. The
National Parks are still prohibiting an activity that has very
little environmental impact in comparison to other activities that
they actively promote through the expenditure of their meager funds
to build permanent facilities that permanently alter the
environment. The very construction of these facilities encourages
greater and greater usage and environmental harm. Planting non-
native grass and subsequent mowing and fertilizing an area for
camping, picnicking and ball playing not to mention septic fields
and sewage treatment facilities harm native vegetation in ways no
misplaced foot or Tupperware box ever could. Fishing KILLS wildlife.
Merely catching fish was shown in a recent study reported on NPR to
be painful to fish and therefore a stressor and handling fish in the
catch and release process is a well-understood stressor and exposes
the fish to wounds and infection but my Tupperware box is a threat
to wildlife. And now I'm to believe we as letterboxers have pushed
the limit too far? I'm supposed to accept that and tell myself "Oh
well, that's the rules"? No, the injustice of this ruling needs to
be pointed out to the National Park Service. I'm not proposing
putting a letterbox in Lincoln's hand in the Lincoln Memorial but I
do think we have unfairly been excluded from National Parks. No, I
don't believe that they did it to p*ss me off, I believe they did it
without any consideration what so ever of the facts and with
complete dismissal and, as I already said, apathetic disregard.
National Parks that allow "extractive" activity. However I have gone
hiking, biking, camping, and rock climbing in National Parks where
these activities are permitted. In fact I live near the C&O Canal
National Park and use it often. Their own web site lists the
following as activities you can enjoy there:
Backpacking Biking Bird Watching Boating Camping Climbing Cross
Country Skiing Fishing Hiking Horseback Riding Interpretive Programs
Kayaking Nature Walks Wildlife Viewing.
Facilities have been built to accommodate many of these activities
such as campsites with toilets, water supply, and electrical
hookups, boat ramps, stables, and bridges. How do any of these
present any less environmental impact than a Tupperware box. The
National Parks are still prohibiting an activity that has very
little environmental impact in comparison to other activities that
they actively promote through the expenditure of their meager funds
to build permanent facilities that permanently alter the
environment. The very construction of these facilities encourages
greater and greater usage and environmental harm. Planting non-
native grass and subsequent mowing and fertilizing an area for
camping, picnicking and ball playing not to mention septic fields
and sewage treatment facilities harm native vegetation in ways no
misplaced foot or Tupperware box ever could. Fishing KILLS wildlife.
Merely catching fish was shown in a recent study reported on NPR to
be painful to fish and therefore a stressor and handling fish in the
catch and release process is a well-understood stressor and exposes
the fish to wounds and infection but my Tupperware box is a threat
to wildlife. And now I'm to believe we as letterboxers have pushed
the limit too far? I'm supposed to accept that and tell myself "Oh
well, that's the rules"? No, the injustice of this ruling needs to
be pointed out to the National Park Service. I'm not proposing
putting a letterbox in Lincoln's hand in the Lincoln Memorial but I
do think we have unfairly been excluded from National Parks. No, I
don't believe that they did it to p*ss me off, I believe they did it
without any consideration what so ever of the facts and with
complete dismissal and, as I already said, apathetic disregard.