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East Bay Parks - Sf Bay Area


geodarts

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I was looking how caches have been confiscated in the East Bay

Regional Parks in the Bay Area and noticed these minutes from EBPD

board meeting held last October or November:

 

"Williams asked about Geocaching. Chief Kenny said it is scheduled

for Board Operations review in 2005. He advised that the District

does not have a policy on Geocaching and it is not allowed at the

District"

 

Does anyone know more about this?

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It may be worthwhile if geocachers contact the park district (by letter or email) to explain the importance of caching and ask that our views be included in any review of the policies.

 

In 2001, there seemed to be an informal policy of treating caches on an individual basis -- the volunteer park patrol was to contact supervisors if there was a problem with an individual cache.

 

http://www.parkpatrol.org/trailhead/200110/v07n4e.htm

 

The policy now seems to be its forbidden unless expressly permitted, and some officials seem to be going out of their way to enforce this.

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Here is the official response that I got from John Escobar, Assistant General Manager. I think that people in the East Bay district and those who have caches in the East Bay parks should make their voices heard by contacting both the park management and the appropriate board members. There are addresses on the Parks web site.

 

This is a democracy, and many parks have been able to fit geocaching into the their policies. But geocaching may be lost if cachers do not make their voices heard to those in authority.

 

"The park district does not currently have a formal policy on geocaching. In the absense of a policy, the Staff has been direct not to permit caches to be established or maintained on Park District lands. I hope you can understand that in the absence of a formal policy, the Park District must take a conservative position on any new use until a policy can be developed. Unfortunately, new uses initially permitted on an informal basis can become very difficult to manage if the formal Board adopted policy eventually places greater restrictions on the activity. It is my understanding that many parks and open space agencies currently limit or do not permit geocaching. Please understand that there is a potential that the East Bay Regional Park Distict could ultimately establish the similar policies."

 

The letter explains that work on a formal policiy is planned for later this year. Staff will be learning more about geocaching and geocching policies of other parks and open space agencies. Escobar states that he welcomes any information and assistance that we could provide.

 

Perhaps those with knowledge of other park policies -- including those who have no restrictions and those who use permit procedures -- could provice this information. It is better to be part of the process now then to lose geocaching later on.

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