It was a glorious Sunday for geocaching; overcast and cooler than the last few days had been, and, although it was somewhat humid, there didn’t seem to be a hint of rain in the air.As we stood at the side of the parking area studying the trail map, a helpful ranger approached and asked if we were looking for the Swamp Forest Trail. We informed him that, indeed we were, since we were determined to locate the geocaches which had been placed there. His eyes narrowed, and, in a non-menacing yet important tone, he informed us that "geocaching is not permitted in the park". We decided to visit a Delaware state park just a few miles from our home to find a few of the caches we’d missed on a previous visit.

Along with my team of The GeoGriffs, consisting of myself, my wife, and our two children, were our nephew, Matthew, The GeoCoops, and our neighbor and daughter's friend, Heather, soon to be anointed as "Toe Jam Cacher".

We parked at the boat ramp area of Lum’s Pond State Park, a beautiful, well-maintained facility just south of Newark, DE. We had never visited this side of the park, but knew there were a number of caches there, many of which had been placed during the Delaware Geocachers spring picnic event just a few months earlier, before we had started geocaching.

Our first find was a quick and easy 500 foot hike down a trail along the edge of the pond, known as Lum’s Best View. Indeed, the view from the shoreline just below the cache site was spectacular, and the cache had obviously been appropriately named. As is typical for the time of year, given the cover of foliage, our two units, one a Magellan and the other a Garmin, played tricks on us for a short while, but in no time we’d located the cache and signed the log. Flush with our first success of the day, we headed back to the parking area to locate the trail on the opposite side, which would lead us to even more caches.

As we stood at the side of the parking area studying the trail map, a helpful ranger approached and asked if we were looking for the Swamp Forest Trail. We informed him that, indeed we were, since we were determined to locate the geocaches which had been placed there. His eyes narrowed, and, in a non-menacing yet important tone, he informed us that "geocaching is not permitted in the park". We were stunned.

We politely informed him that we were only looking for caches which had already been placed, and were published on the GeoCaching.com website. He stunned us yet again when he told us that the park staff was actively seeking to remove all the caches in the park, since they were not in keeping with acceptable use of the park, and further that they had visited the web site and knew the locations! I wondered aloud how it could be that caches had become such a problem, only to be told that they (ah yes, the omnipresent ‘they’) had discovered that people were digging holes four feet deep in the park to hide caches, and such activities simply weren’t allowed.

...it seemed obvious to me from our discussions, limited as they were, that this individual did not understand the first thing about geocaching, and was not someone likely to accept information given him by anyone involved in it. We had a short discussion, during which I informed him that I couldn’t imagine someone doing such a thing, since a cache of that nature would be one that the typical cacher would simply not bother to try and locate, given the hurdles that would be involved. Nonetheless, he persisted, but got on his radio to inform someone, somewhere, of our activities.

After a few moments of conferring with his (I assume) superiors, he exited his vehicle and told us he had misunderstood the rules, and that we were welcome to find existing caches, but to leave none. Yet, he insisted that the staff was actively seeking to remove the caches in the park.

We parted ways amicably, and had a nice afternoon of hiking the trails of the park, discovering and logging an additional three caches, all of which were well-hidden, well-maintained, and about as minimally intrusive to the park environment as it is possible to be.

I think this is a cautionary tale of sorts. Whenever I ask permission to place caches on publicly-owned land in Maryland, I am careful to obtain "written" permission, especially when it can be had by e-mail, which I can easily save for future reference. Perhaps the same notion should be applied here. In addition, it seemed obvious to me from our discussions, limited as they were, that this individual did not understand the first thing about geocaching, and was not someone likely to accept information given him by anyone involved in it.

Even so, we are still consistently impressed on our visits to the Delaware parks with how clean, well-kept, and hospitable they are, despite this incident. Our fervent hope is that, as other cachers are afforded the opportunity,As an ardent conservationist, dedicated long-term public servant, and the author of more than a few articles on conservation issues, I wholeheartedly endorse geocaching as an activity completely compatible with other uses of our public lands, but I encourage others in our community to take up the banner of education and enlightenment... they make an effort to impress upon park staff how innocuous and harmless geocaching is, and, indeed, to introduce them to the activity whenever possible. With more information and enlightenment will certainly come more understanding and appreciation.

As in this case, I’ve heard arguments about how caching is intrusive on habitat, trail systems, and the general enjoyment of others in the parks, but I have not found that to be the case with our newly adopted hobby. Indeed, it seems to fit comfortably well with the oft-stated objective of multiple use on public lands.

In my experience, limited as it may be, I find caching to be wholly compatible with other uses, and not the least objectionable in any way, except perhaps in those cases where the contents of a cache are strewn about the landscape by perpetrators who are almost certainly not themselves cachers.

As an ardent conservationist, dedicated long-term public servant, and the author of more than a few articles on conservation issues, I wholeheartedly endorse geocaching as an activity completely compatible with other uses of our public lands, but I encourage others in our community to take up the banner of education and enlightenment, so that the number of incidents like the one my family and I experienced will be minimized.

Editor's note: The author of this article is past Chairman of the Cecil County, Maryland Planning Commission, past President of the Maryland Association of Forestry Boards, and a past member of the Maryland Governor’s Executive Committee on Trees and Forests in Maryland. He is also the coauthor and coeditor of the publication "Biological Diversity in Maryland Forests", as well as the author of hundreds of articles on birding and habitat conservation. In addition, he has acted as an occasional technical advisor to both the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. He has also contributed time for environmental field work to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.