September 2007 GGA Meeting Notes

The September GGA meeting was held south of Social Circle at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center on September 8th. The CEWC was founded in 1993 to provide wildlife education to the public, and to provide fishing with it’s 29 ponds, a shooting range, and many hunting opportunities. There were 40 geocachers in attendance at the meeting, with 28 members signed in under 24 geonicks and 9 new members under 7 geonicks.

Erik started the meeting by welcoming everyone, especially those attending their first meeting, and then turned the meeting over to RustyG. Our host and guest speaker, Rusty Garrison, has been involved with the center since before it opened, and still assists with their programs in his new roll as the Assistant Chief for Game Management for the state.

Rusty is also a geocacher, something he prefaced his presentation with. Rusty showed us an interesting slide show of his travels throughout the world, with the many geocaching opportunities his mission trip presented. He did a great job of breaking the ice with his “fast food” film taken in Africa, and for setting the stage to not shoot the messenger when he told the group that geocaching was no longer allowed in state owned wildlife management areas.
Unfortunately, despite his arguments with state DNR management to the contrary, it was deemed that there was a perceived conflict with hunting. For that reason geocaching was banned, though other activities such as hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding were not. Though many of the geocachers in the group questioned the decision, and debated it with Rusty, we knew that we were arguing with an advocate for our sport, and that we really need to communicate with those who actually made the decision without first asking for public comment from the geocaching community.

As is required by law, Rusty did provide contact information so we can voice our concerns in an orderly and constructive manner. Since listing all that information is beyond the scope of these meeting notes, that data will be provided in a separate thread in the “Members Only” section of this discussion forum.

Although geocaching is currently prohibited in state owned Wildlife Management Areas such as the Charlie Elliot facility, it is not prohibited in Wildlife Management Areas that are not state owned such as the National Forest.

After the contentious discussion about geocaching in WMAs, the topic turned to something everyone could agree on: exciting Birds of Prey. Rusty provided a very informative presentation about the winged raptors we might see while geocaching. He had brought along a Screech Owl, a Barred Owl, a Red-tailed Hawk, and a Harris Hawk in addition to showing us slides of other hawks, falcons, and eagles. It was very interesting to hear about, and see in a close and personal way, these majestic birds.

Following Rusty’s presentations we adjourned for a brief period to socialize, then held the obligatory monthly GGA raffle of donated items. Thanks to those who donated, and to all who participated in the meetings and discussion.

At the conclusion of the meeting most departed to look for area geocaches (albeit not in the WMA), but several groups stayed behind to begin discussions and planning for our next event: our annual GGA Challenge.

To read logs and view pictures of this months GGA event please view the Event page here: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=...ed-ba40-5a6450b9016f

Please plan to join us October 13 at Dausett Trails in Henry County for our exciting Challenge Event.