How to fight geocaching bureacracy

by Clan Riffster

IkeHurley13, on 26 January 2012 - 05:39 AM, said:

Michaelcycle, on 25 January 2012 - 05:35 PM, said:

In bill H3794 signed by the governor of South Carolina on June 2, 2009, the South Carolina General Assembly prohibited geocaching on all state wildlife management areas, heritage preserves, and all other lands owned OR operated by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

I added the bold. This is what happens when one cache hider (or finder) chooses to not follow the rules laid out.

Actually, this is what happens when your Government forgets who they work for. This has "Big Fish - Little Pond" written all over it. SCDNR allows a whole host of activities on their properties other than geocaching. I simply cannot fathom that they would outlaw any of these other activities over one single rules violation. The fact that they were so quick on the trigger with geocaching tells me they have some anti-caching mook whispering in their collective ears. I would guess this mook works somewhere fairly high in the DNR food chain.

I don't know what your current tactics are, but as someone who has worked in Government all my adult life, I speak Bureaucrat like a native, and I know how I would combat foolishness like this. My first step would be to gather enforcement data from DNR properties over the past 5 years. Every single arrest, every single citation, every single warning. Sort these by activity. (camping/mountain biking/ATV use/hunting/etc) It's all a matter of public record. Then I would watch for town hall type meetings set up for politicians to mingle with the little people. Either I or someone else who was on my side and spoke the language would attend every single one of these meetings, bringing the collected data, and raising my hand.

When called upon, I would ask the following question:

"Sir/Ma'am, as you know, House Bill 3794 outlawed geocaching on all SCDNR lands, because of a single, isolated rules violation by a single person. According to public records, which I have here for your perusal, in the past 5 years there have been X rules violations by campers, X rules violations by hunters, X rules violations by fishermen, Etc. And yet, there has been no call to ban these activities. Can you tell me why our elected officials are treating geocaching so unfairly?"

The closer you get to an election, the more impact such a question would have.