News.bytes Extra, issue 352

BLM’s “Take it Outside” offers GPS Geocaching at San Bernardino County’s Annual Sheriff’s Rodeo

More than 3,000 Girl and Boy Scouts converged on Glen Helen Regional Park Sept. 27, for the San Bernardino County’s Annual Sheriff’s Rodeo & Camporee. One highlight was a "treasure hunt" -- featuring Global Positioning System (GPS) training and Leave No Trace (LNT) principles -- sponsored by the BLM’s Desert District Office in partnership with the San Gorgonio Girl Scout Council.

 
Visitors use small portable GPS units to "choose the right path" to a geocache

Volunteer Cadette Girl Scouts from Troop 348 and 407 led more than 60 scouts and adults on a treasure hunt to find a "geocached treasure."  The girls set up the treasure hunt by placing waypoints into twelve handheld GPS devices.  They then showed campers how to follow waypoints and navigate to the hidden treasure. (text continues below)

A group of scouts studies their portable GPS units for clues

The Girl Scouts tied Leave No Trace principles to each waypoint and shared the importance of learning proper geocaching etiquette in the outdoors : choose the right path, respect wildlife, know before you go, and the importance of good outdoor manners.  Scouts were delighted to find the  cached “treasure,” a coffee can filled with girl scout patches, and they learned geocache etiquette required that when you take an item,  you leave an item in return. By day’s end the cache can was filled with scout troop “swaps.”

Tthe  BLM and Girl Scout volunteers at the GPS activity booth handed out flyers to promote an upcoming "GPS Fun Day" on Oct. 11. The event will be sponsored by a grant from BLM Take It Outside.  The twelve GPS Vista E Trex devices were funded by a Take It Outside “Girl Scouts Explore” grant received by the BLM's California Desert District Office and the San Gorgonio Girl Scout Council. The grant is meant to encourage girls to get outdors by offering GPS geocaching and Leave No Trace outdoor program activities.  Troops who train on the GPS devices will be eligle to check out the units for troop programs.

BLM’s "Take It Outside" program promotes and supports outdoor activities and experiences of children on the public lands. The program strives to improve the health of our nation's children, families, and communities, while at the same time developing the next generation of public land stewards.

More photos from the event:

A group gets close to the geocache "treasure"...


...and...got it!

Tthe  BLM and Girl Scout volunteers at the GPS activity booth handed out flyers to promote an upcoming "GPS Fun Day"

The Girls Scouts show of portable GPS units they trained with

- Jo Ann Schiffer-Burdett, 9/30/08

BLM-California News.bytes, issue 351