I have been working feverishly for two months to develop an Earthcache at a very cool site in the MNF near the scenic highway. It was to be called "Death from the sky, Life from a bucket". It was my hope to develop the cache at the site where each year the WV DNR and WV Trout Unlimited form a 1/4 mile long bucket brigade to haul 9 tons of limestone sand one bucket at a time to a dump site in an ephemeral ditch feeding the Middle Fork of Williams River. The Middle Fork has been dead from acid rain since the middle of the 20th century and through the efforts of TU and the DNR at this site this famous stream is now coming back to life (we found young of the year native brook trout this spring for the first time ever).
Even though I put a lot of emphasis on the underlying geology of the area and highlighted why acid rain affects different watersheds differently and even though I highlighted how acid precipitation is created, I had to revise numerous times before getting approval from the Earthcache reviewer. He thought it sounded too biological even with all the geology crocheted through the description and the requirements. But ultimately, I was able to get approval from the reviewer.
Then came the land management approval. I have been in discussions with the Monongahela National Forest about permission for this Earthcache site for a few weeks now. I just found out a few minutes ago that they have denied approval since Earthcaching, while no container is being placed, does not fall within the guidelines/prescription for Wilderness according to the Wilderness Act. We talked at length (very professionally too I might add) for almost 30 minutes about this. Despite my requests for them to give me more clarity as to "what" exactly didn't fit their interpretation vs. other wilderness use (i.e., hiking, horseback riding, etc) I honestly never could get a response that I could truly comprehend. They tried to encourage me to find a new site outside of the wilderness area and resubmit, but honestly I'm so disheartened that I don't think I will. Primarily because there are no other limestone dump sites with even remotely this same dynamic - use of volunteers + completely dead stream prior to effort + recent success + highlighting a backcountry experience.
Yet again, Wilderness rules swallow up geocaching efforts. I thought I'd post this so that if anyone else was considering creating an Earthcache within a wilderness area (e.g., Dolly Sods) you can forget it.