Coosa Valley Cachers

gridlox

Lisa (Pink Lisa of The Hall Clan) broke some unsettling news to us this past Saturday night.

Due to some changes in land use regulations that are being discussed for the Berry College campus, Geocaches that we now have in place "may" have to be archived.
And future use of now commonly used trails and land use areas will be restricted to certain types of usage. (ie... Walking/Hiking, Bicycles, Horses)

As it stands right now we "may" be looking at restrictions similar to what is in place for the National Parks.

"If" such restrictions do go into effect, It might be a good idea for a few of us to get together and approach "the powers that be" to discuss "permission granted" caches on permissible areas of the campus.

Berry is such a beautiful campus and it would be a shame to lose all the caches placed there now and not bring folks to see it.

I'd especially hate to see us lose what I consider the crowning jewel of all the Floyd County caches "Lavender Green".

Even if Berry does make us remove all caches presently placed on campus, I'd like to try to keep the communications channels open with hopes that we can eventually get some placed back out there in the future.

D-man Cool

sledgehampster · Site Admin Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 108

Wonder if the Letterboxes are gonna suffer the same fate? There are 6 of them there that I know of.

gridlox · Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 12:50 am Post subject:

Probably so.
I think the way it sounds, anything that takes folks off the designated trails & public use areas are gonna be off limits.

FYI for anyone planning to go out this weekend to try and grab the Berry caches, they are having a managed deer hunt this weekend. So, it might be very dangerous to grab those that are off the beaten paths. Sad

Lavendar Green (GCJ1BR), Turnerberry (GCPYC2), Water Wheel Eight (GCTRX1) are the main ones that come to mind.

D-man Cool

sledgehampster · Site Admin Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 108

Berry College's Old Mill GC6E21 was archived on Dec 2 by it's owner. Sad

Really hate to see that one go...

sledgehampster · Site Admin Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 108

Opportunity Knocking GCTERG was archived on Nov 15 by The Hall Clan. It was a challenge and will be missed...

Ditto and Pooh Bear · Joined: 01 Dec 2007 Posts: 2 Location: Rome GA

This is the first that we have heard about this situation so I would be glad to go with whoever knows who to see and discuss the possibility of maintaining caches on the property. I agree that Berry is a beautiful place and it would be a shame to lose this means of bringing new people to see it.

Sand-Man · Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 11:29 am Post subject:

I just may have an insider at the top of the food chain. I'll see what kind of information I can get. I suppose that the reason for the restriction is the damage that foot traffic unavoidably does to some natural areas. To loose complete access to such areas for that reason would be worse than loosing a cache location. An option might be to make it a "virtual cache".

sledgehampster · Site Admin Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 108

Sandman, Welcome to the group and please let us know what you find out.

Sand-Man · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:30 pm Post subject:

My Sister works at Berry and she has given me a contact. I sent them and E-mail tonight requesting information on land usage policy changes. I'll keep the information coming when they reply. Now that we have let the Berry land managers know that there are caches hidden there, we may have to archive them until we get permission. More to come!

Sand-Man · Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:16 am Post subject:

I got a reply from Berry about the Land usage but no usefull information yet. I am sure they will respond further after the holidays. I am in Rome this week for the Christmas with my familly and will be taking the G'kids out for some caching while I am here..... They've already ask if I brought my little "thingy" with me that finds the "cash". Merry Christmas y'all and Happy Holiday caching!

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Sandy

Sand-Man · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:14 pm Post subject:

Nothing yet!

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Sandy

sledgehampster · Site Admin Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 108

Let us know if we can be of help on a local level. Thanks for your efforts!

Sand-Man · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:01 pm Post subject:

My Sister is the secretary to Berry's president and she gave me the contact information. I will contact them again today and see if there has been any activity or discussions. If I don't get anything out of them I'll pass along the contact information to you by E-mail and you can approach this in person. But right now I would say that there is no big concern or I am sure I would have gotten a cease and desist request right off the bat...

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Sandy

Sand-Man · Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 5:09 pm Post subject:

I guess they are not as anxious as we had thought about changing the land use policies. I haven't heard a thing out of these folks but they are still working on some changes. It might not be a bad idea to get written permission for any future hides on the property. I'll post any future information here as I get it....

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Sandy

Sand-Man · Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:38 pm Post subject:

I met with Berry land managers this morning concerning the issues. Berry's board is currently considering the impact of Geocaching on the campus. While they are not overly concerned at this time, there are a few things that they wanted us to be aware of. The largest wilderness area on Berry are leased to the state for WMA. Any approvals they give for land usage in those areas have to abide by the state guidelines. Geocaching has to be made aware that the WMA areas are not accessible during regulated hunting season.... which by the way will open (Turkey) in just a few weeks. I will continue to update this forum as this issue develops.

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Sandy