1. A geocache (personally designed and fabricated-2 different designs)
2. A journal/log
3. Ziploc bags with a variety of seeds that are made trackable items
4. Marker
5. Labels/Stickers for seeds
The Geocache-A-Forest kit will enable the planting of a tree at one geocached location. This in turn prompts other adventurers in the geocaching community to contribute by taking the seed with them and creating another geocache in a location
of their choice. The location where the geocache is hidden, is first logged in the site. Then the seekers get to it, read the information posted.
The activity of replanting seeds in different areas is part of the optional tasks the geocacher can do once the cache has been found.
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From the geocaching.com site:
“Caches that Solicit
Solicitations are off-limits. For example, caches perceived to be posted for religious, political, charitable or social agendas are not permitted. Geocaching is supposed to be a light, fun activity, not a platform for an agenda.”
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So, the replanting of seeds is optional just to make sure this is not a social agenda but a light social activity. But, once the cache is found, the seeds have to be traded with the ones in the cache. The seeds have to be planted in another site and the information should be logged. If the seeds are planted, there could be another geocache hidden in that spot to mark the tree’s location, to track the age of the cache and also a fun activity of tracking the places the seeds travel to.
People now trade seeds with each other and log it in the geocaching.com site. The kit involves adventurous activity, the excitement of the future for the cache and how the seeds travel places, changes hands and of trees that are logged, geocached and grown by a community of nature loving and fun seeking adventurers.
A possible path the geocaching activity might take:
Step 1: The Geocache is placed at a location where a seed is planted.
Step 2: A geocacher comes in, visits the location, logs it takes a Ziploc bag with a geotag on it.
Step 3: He logs the traveling geotag & Ziploc bag with seeds in it.
Step 4: He may or may not plant the seeds in a different location and start another geotag.
Step 5: The tree grows as the geocache gets older and starts becoming a marker of how old the cache is.
The geocache has an instruction sheet with it, that allows the geocachers to get information about the activity:
“GEOCACHE SITE - PLEASE READ
Congratulations, you've found it! Intentionally or not!
What is this hidden container sitting here for? What the heck is this thing doing here with all these things in it?
It is part of a worldwide game dedicated to GPS (Global Positioning System) users, called Geocaching. The game basically involves a GPS user hiding "treasure" (this container and its contents), and publishing the exact coordinates so other GPS users can come on a "treasure hunt" to find it. The only rules are: if you take something from the geocache, you must leave something in the geocache, and you must write about your visit in the logbook. Hopefully, the person that hid this container found a good spot that is on public property and is not easily found by uninterested parties. Sometimes, a good spot turns out to be a bad spot, though.
IF YOU FOUND THIS CONTAINER BY ACCIDENT:
Great! You are welcome to join us! We ask only that you:
� Please do not move or vandalize the container. The real treasure is just finding the container and sharing your thoughts with everyone else who finds it.
� If you wish, go ahead and take something. But please also leave something of your own for others to find, and write it in the logbook.
� If possible, let us know that you found it, by visiting the website listed below.
Geocaching is open to everyone with a GPS and a sense of adventure. There are similar sites all over the world. Currently, the organization has it's home on the Internet. Visit our website if you want to learn more, or have any comments:
http://www.geocaching.com
If this container happens to be sitting on private property and you wish it removed, please let us know. We apologize, and will be happy to move it.
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Rules of this cache
1. Please take a bag of seeds & replace with one of your own (if trading).
2. Optional: Plant the seed in a location of your choice and hide a geocache along with it.
3. Please log your name and location where the seeds are headed.
4. Optional: If you plant the seeds provided, please log the location of the previous geocache when you hide the next.
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Sketches of Design of the Cache
There is something somewhat primal about actively becoming a seed-spreader (like animals that spread seeds in their feces after eating them). It would be interesting to track the growing plant in a race for survival as a tropical plant moves northward and winter approaches. Can and how would invasive species fare and would they survive? Can this project actually be used to raise eco-awareness and offer people native seeds to plant in urban areas like the "Grass Bomb" project?
ReplyDeleteI think this sounds like a really interesting project. Kind of in line with Jesus, I wondered about the type of seeds being spread. You could potentially be inviting people to spread seeds in an environment in which they don't belong, which could (dependent on the seed, somewhat unlikely) cause ecological problems in some natural environments.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea. It almost seems like the anti-forest, that is an uncluttered, and more spatial & widespread than a forest with interesting possibilities in between the trees. I would triple-underline the concerns of Jesus and Brittany but use it as a challenge to simplify rather than complicate.
ReplyDelete