Celebrate Geocaching by Cleaning Up at a CITO Event
Geocachers will demonstrate their commitment to the environment by the bagful in April. Thousands of geocachers will join together in picking up trash and filling garbage bags with litter. They’ll be attending Cache In Trash Out (CITO) events over the 11th Annual International CITO Weekend. It’s scheduled for April 20, 21 and 22. Tons of trash will be removed from geocaching-friendly locations. It’s easy to join the global community by attending one of the many CITO events. With hundreds of CITO Events in dozens of countries, there’s sure to be one near you. If there isn’t a CITO event near you, there’s still time to create your own CITO event.
Those attending CITO Events on April 20, 21 or April 22 (or all three!) will earn a 2013 CITO souvenir for their Geocaching profile. Share International CITO Weekend with your friends by joining the Geocaching Facebook CITO Weekend event page.
The subject of sustainable geocaching goes under the microscope during the German geocaching event “Gecko 2012.” The Geocaching “Konferenz” (Gecko) offers three days of workshops, lectures, and events on the topic of keeping and expanding, “sustainable geocaching in harmony with the environment, nature, and in harmony with our fellow human beings.” It’s a powerful undertaking in Germany, which has the highest geocache saturation of any country in the world.
Gecko 2012: Sustainable Geocaching
Jan aka Czerkus is part of the organizational team for Gecko-2012. Jan says a majority of geocachers play in harmony with nature. “Geocachers often say that the world is their playing field. If you use nature for your hobby, it should be self-evident to protect your playing field. This is the central slogan of the conference.”
This is one of the first conferences of its kind. Jan says, “All workshops, activities and discussions are focused on environmental education and building bridges between geocachers and their critics. As well, we’ll give geocachers who are environmentally aware a platform to develop networks. At the moment we are learning a lot, because there is no experience or event like this that we can lean on [and learn from].”
The events at the conference don’t just teach people about respecting nature, they embrace the outdoors and geocaching. Some of the sessions of the conference include courses on “T5 tree climbing,” “Observing and protecting animals,” and trips to nearby EarthCaches. Jan says there’s more, “There will be workshops about planning Cache In Trash Out (CITO) Events, discussions with hunters, forest rangers, and environmental activists and nature-guides will lead the geocachers in the woods to show them their play field.”
Location of "Gecko 2012"
Jan says geocachers have a great responsibility to the environment because geocaching is a highly visible activity, “Geocaching is very transparent and leaves geocachers’ marks in the World Wide Web. Everybody can see what we do, where, and how often.”
Along with seeing geocaching, Jan also hopes the greater community sees geocachers’ environmental efforts like Gecko 2012. He says, “We have a very special responsibility” to care for the environment. It’s even more fitting then, that after Gecko 2012, a giant Cache In Trash out (CITO) is planned. Gecko 2012 begins on June 8.
Thousands of geocachers walk into parks, onto trails, and visit other geocaching-friendly areas around the world to clean up the environment each year. They walk out with bags of trash and a sense of pride. They’re taking part in Cache In Trash Out (CITO) events and helping to preserve the natural beauty of our outdoor resources through litter clean up, removal of invasive species, planting trees, and trail building.
CITO events are held all year long, but you’ll have more than 140 to choose from on April 21 and 22 — the 10th annual International CITO weekend.
This year, more than a thousand geocachers from at least 15 countries are combining in the annual worldwide environmental effort. The locations range from Budapest to Hong Kong, and include 32 U.S. States. Odds are one of the CITO events is near you.
[Editor’s note: This video is spoken in German and Czech. Click the CC button for English, German or Czech subtitles.]
[vsw id=”HOqobTmkbbU” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”] Watch the latest Geocaching.com Presents video: CITO: Hamburg to Prague. See how geocachers from two countries unite to cleanup the environment. Dozens of geocachers from Germany and the Czech Republic attended the Hamburg to Prague CITO Event in June of 2011. They cleared trash from a Prague park, including tires, discarded cables, and bags full of litter.
CITO stands for Cache In Trash Out . It’s a Geocaching.com volunteer environmental effort repeated over and over again around the world by groups of geocachers each year. Since 2002, geocachers have been dedicated to improving parks and other cache-friendly location. These volunteer efforts help preserve the natural beauty of our outdoor resources. Find a CITO Event near you by checking out the CITO calendar.
The next Geocaching.com Presents video, “A Czech Geocaching Love Story” is scheduled for released on February 14th. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be one of the first to see new videos. Watch the more than 50 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.
The world’s first EarthCache turns eight-years-old today. Saying “Happy Birthday!” is as easy as logging an EarthCache. Chances are there’s one close to where you’re sitting right now. There are plenty of EarthCaches, think thousands and thousands, around the globe. But that wasn’t the case back in 2004.
“Earthcache I – a simple geology tour of Wasp Head” (GCHFT2) triggered a seismic movement in geocaching. The first EarthCache was located in Australia. It was placed by geoaware on January 10, 2004. Since then more than 17,000 EarthCaches have been published, popping up on every continent on the planet.
Each EarthCache must share specific characteristics before being published. There’s no physical cache. At every EarthCache, geocachers learn about the forces that sculpted the earth. EarthCaches showcase volcanoes, seismic fault lines, salt flats, bizarre rock structures and more. Each Earthcache reveals how scientists understand our planet.
EarthCache at a green sand beach in Hawaii "Olivine" (GC1M15H)
To log an EarthCache geocachers must demonstrate to the cache owner what they learned about a specific geological feature. Geocachers might measure a rock structure or record a tidal movement. At the EarthCache “Olivine” in Hawaii, geocachers must answer questions about the unique green grains of sand.
EarthCaches are gaining in popularity as they grow older and more established in the geocaching world. Organizers are even hosting the first International EarthCache Event (GC33E6X) this year. It’ll take place in September near Portland, Maine, USA. More than 250 geocachers have already logged a “Will Attend.”
You can learn more about EarthCaching by watching the video below.
Celebrate Geocaching by Cleaning Up at a CITO Event
