Surveyor Traditional Geocache
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Find a Bearing Tree and this cache is nearby...
a camoflaged pill bottle container .1 miles from the trailhead waypoint. Please be very careful not to damage the 'host location' as you seek this hide, and use care to keep it camoflaged when you replace it as found!
While developing the cache placement for ‘Can’t see the Forest…’ I stumbled across a broken Bearing Tree. As an avid benchmarker, I immediately began to search for the cadastral survey marker. Hindered by an inability to clamber up on the tree and read the sign’s directions, I was unable to find the marker in the thick of the green forest (if you find it, mark its location and email me – I’ll buy you lunch!). This location is on the route to ‘Can’t see the Forest…’ cache. Oh - and absolutely DO NOT DISTURB the bearing tree sign!
The seemingly innocuous bearing tree is important for several reasons. The obvious one is to provide a reference point with a sign which gives bearings ‘back’ to the survey marker, in case the marker is hidden or destroyed. A far less apparent use of the bearing tree is to provide ecologists with valuable information from public land surveys about the type of trees and vegetation found on public lands at the time of the survey. All of the western United States (including Anchorage) was surveyed according to “An Ordinance for Ascertaining the Mode of Disposing of Lands in the Western Territory,” passed by the US Congress on 20 May 1785. This Public Land Survey (PLS) recorded the type of tree used for bearing marks as public lands were divided into sections and townships along parallels developed from a standard meridian. In southcentral Alaska, this was the Seward Meridian, a name familiar to anyone who drives up in the Wasilla area. Thus, the PLS contains a record of tree species distribution prior to extensive European settlement of an area, which is an unintended yet invaluable spin-off benefit of the early survey.
To learn more about the ecological value of bearing trees, visit this link to MINNESOTA’S BEARING TREE DATABASE, maintained within the Natural Heritage Information System, Section of Ecological Services, Division of Fish and Wildlife, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The 25-page PDF document is a fascinating and easy to read report which demonstrates how old databases can be ‘mined’ to provide information to modern-day scientists.
As a side note, according to a 1917 report of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey to Congress, the PLS in Alaska was being accomplished at the cost of 18 cents per acre or $58 per mile. This was about six times the average cost of public land surveys being accomplished in the western United States at the same time - a reflection of the extreme conditions surveyors faced in penetrating the wilds of Alaska.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ab pyvzovat arprffnel - ohg ernpuvat hc uvtu vf!