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This is inspired by a recent post which has me curious.
How many of your placed caches have been placed with permission, either written or definite verbal approval? In other words, caches which you could provide an email, name or office to call to prove you have been given permission.
The 3 out of the 6 that I placed had permission. Yankee Woodlot, French's Mountain, and China School Forest which was placed originally by a teacher there all had verbal permission.
I have 10 caches out and 5 of them have been placed with permission. As I said in another thread. I am guilty of places caches in the past without permission.
Both of mine were placed with permission and it took several steps to figure out which agency owned the property and who in the agency would be the one to give permission. The issue had to go before a planning board and then I had to send back exact coords, landmarks etc when they were finally placed. My contact even said it was a nice new use for their agency's property which sounds like she may not know about other caches that are already placed.
I recognize that there are some areas that ownership would be difficult to figure out and that TPTB (town, city or state) wouldn't even know who would be the sign off for such a request. In the future I'll have a better feel for those areas, but I also felt as a new geocacher it was my responsibility to do things right while placing these first hides and see how the procedure is really supposed to go.
I admit when I see new cachers putting out a bunch of caches in a short amount of time, I wonder how they've gotten permission so quickly or if they've even read the guidelines before placing their first cache.
Two of the Three caches I have placed are on Maine Public Reserve Land and while yes there are agencies that oversee the land's use, I did not seek them out for specific permission. I was care ful to read all the regulations and feel that I had placed well within the guidelines and that there was nothing in the regulations precluding placement.
Anyone had any dealings with the agency overseeing public lands?
All the caches I've placed have either implied or direct permission. This has been a topic that I've always regarded passionately. The one thing that I will concede though is that I have never "renewed" permission and in some of the locations either the land owner, manager or steward has changed and they may or may not be aware of the cache presently. Considering some of the caches I placed have been out for over 4 years now it would be hard to say that they are there with permission today as things change but they were originally placed with consent.
All the caches I've placed are on city property. I wrote them a letter last year to let them know they were there and to obtain permission for myself and others. I never heard back from them. I figured, I tried, and left them there.
A number of mine are on Town of Orrington Conservation land or town land. I met with the Conservation Commission and have permission for caches on their lands and the other town lands, I have permission of the appropriate department head who supervises the property.
Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, permission was granted and others could place them on their lands, too. The custodians of the property just want to know where they are and have right of refusal for you to place them in some sensitive areas. Seems reasonable enough to me. Please do not take this as blanket permission - go to the caretakers first and let them know what and where you are placing.
Earthcaches require landowners permission so my earthcache was a hard sought after approval by a DOT supervisor. Some "public right of way issues" came into play and where there was no physical container it made a huge difference.
I have some GRC where I did not get "approval" and one where I did. I have a picnic area cache where I did not get approval but it is on public land.
All of my caches on private property (mine) do have permission.
On both of my caches I phoned the city manager at the time, explained geocaching, and was given permission to place. I did put a note in the cache stating permission from the city manager, in case a maintenance worker should come upon it and not know.
I have to say that I have a Ton of geocache materials for placing caches and haven't place any yet. I wanted to get some experience. To become accustomed to what kind of caches and locations are best for protecting it for the long haul, while giving the cacher a great experience/memory. I've been kicked off supposed private property... risked tarnishing a well earned relationship w/a land owner... Unknowingly Trespassed.... all while trusting that the cache owner got permission. I'm working hard to over-come my negative experiences, so I can complete give back to the geo-caching community.
Now that has to be about the most sensible post I have read in a long time!Quote:
Originally Posted by squirrelcache