Tag: Environment

/ Eric Schudiske /

You’re Part of the CITO Equation

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Cache In Trash Out (CITO) needs you. It’s simple: you geocache in an area and then take trash out. One weekend per year, geocachers around the world join together to help remove trash from geocaching-friendly locations. Last year, geocachers around the globe created the most successful CITO year ever. Over 640 CITO events helped clear more than 50 tons of trash from parks and wild places around the world. That’s a staggering 100,000 pounds (45359.2 kg).

Each person who logs an “Attended” for a CITO event on April 26 or April 27 this year earns a 2014 CITO souvenir for their Geocaching profile. They also earn a sense of accomplishment and probably a few finds along the way. Find or host a CITO event near you and help make this year even more successful.

And just because CITO weekend hasn’t arrived yet, doesn’t mean that CITO hasn’t started. We encourage every geocacher to practice Cache In Trash Out every time they go geocaching. There are also plenty of CITO events that happen throughout the year. You can look for CITO events in your area or host your own.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Announcing the 2014 CITO Weekend and Souvenir

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Get ready for a classic win-win situation from the geocaching playbook: lend a hand to improve the geocaching game board (a local park, trail, or geocaching-friendly location) and earn the 2014 CITO souvenir. It’s easy and rewarding.

It all happens during the 2014 CITO Weekend on April 26 and 27. Everyone who logs an “Attended” at a Cache In Trash Out (CITO) Event earns this year’s CITO souvenir for their Geocaching profile. So start planning your event now!

During a CITO Event, geocachers search parks, trails and forests to earn a smiley—but they’re not looking for geocaches. They’re clearing litter and trash from geocaching-friendly areas around the world. On CITO weekend, thousands of geocachers will walk away from their events with bags of trash and a sense of pride. They’re preserving the natural beauty of our world. It’s often more than litter clean up. Some CITO events remove invasive species, plant trees or build trails.

Join the geocaching community movement. CITO events are held all year long, but you’ll have plenty of events to choose from on April 26 and 27.  Last year, over 13,000 geocachers from more than 30 countries combined in the annual worldwide environmental effort, which is tied closely with Earth Day.

Share this CITO video, create a CITO event near you and gear up with CITO trash bags, trackables and more at Shop Geocaching. See you in April for the 2014 CITO Weekend!

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocachers Cleanup Awards for Cleaning Up

Award-winning group of geocachers

The environment wins big when geocachers attend Cache In Trash Out (CITO) events. But now a group of Texas, USA geocachers are winning for their cleanup efforts.

Travis Gilbert (SKnight579) organized the Permian Basin Cachers Association CITO Events. Travis says, “We are a smaller group of cachers (around about 30) in the middle of nowhere out in West Texas.”

“A smaller group” with a big agenda to pick up trash. They’ve adopted two sites and pledged to clear trash from those areas on a regular basis. One site is a stretch of four lane highway and another is a location in a nearby city.  The group has held CITO events at these locations over the past couple years. Travis says, “We are under contract to clean the road two times a year, we do it four times a year, and we also separate out recyclables as we go for a small bit of money for the group (covers the water basically).”

Permian Basin Geocachers Win State Award

Travis says the extra effort was noticed. His email inbox had a surprise waiting for him a couple weeks ago, “I received an email from the State of Texas that our little group would also be getting the “Group of the Year” award for the State! I’m really proud of our group.” Gilbert says they also won another award from the City of Midland, Texas for the Permian Basin Geocachers cleanup efforts there.

He says the group is inspiring other local geocachers to help make a difference. “I know of several other groups of cachers in Texas that have adopted roads and spots after seeing what our group has done and I could not be prouder of our group.”

Trackable state and local awards for Permian Geocachers

Bagging trash and picking up recyclables has an occasional reward.

Travis says, “The best find was our last cleanup in April when we found 20 proof sets of coins scattered over half of our adopted area. We called the police and no one had reported them missing and I spoke about it on the news that night and no one tried to contact me, so win win. There were 10 of us cleaning that trip so we raffled them and each took two sets home.”

Now they’re also taking home trophies. Travis did what any geocacher would do with the awards. He says “I’ve also made both awards Trackable.” Check out the Trackable pages here and here. Three geocachers, besides Travis, attended all the CITO events. They include grumpyoldtexan, DeKoning, and ZSandmann.

Since 2002, geocachers around the world have been dedicated to improving parks and other cache-friendly places. There are dozens of CITO events around the world each month. Check out the CITO Events Calendar to find at CITO near you.

Permian Basin Geocachers
/ Eric Schudiske /

Announcing: Geocacher of the Month Award

You could be the Geocacher of the Month

Groundspeak needs your help acknowledging a geocacher each month that stands out by inspiring other geocachers with their innovation, creative hides and/or logs, respect for the environment, and geocaching etiquette. This person can be your best geocaching buddy, a geocacher you know as a local legend, or a long time geocacher who invites newbies to the geocaching community.

The Geocacher of the Month celebrates geocachers for their contributions and diversity. Geocachers are outdoorsy, technically apt, young, old, parents, single, athletic, intelligent, travelers, grandparents, and more. They are a uniquely eclectic group, unified by their passion for the activity of geocaching.

If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be the Geocachers of the Month, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com.

Every nomination must meet the following requirements. Please include your name, the name of your nominee, their username, at least one picture of the nominee and description (in 500 or fewer words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month. Please inform your nominee that you’ve submitted them for the award. Nominations for the first Geocacher of the Month must be received by August 4th.

Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top three candidates and post them on the blog. You will then get a chance to vote for your favorite.

We’ll name the Geocacher of the Month on August 20th at the Geocaching Block Party in Seattle, Washington, USA. Each Geocacher of the Month will receive an exclusive special edition ”Geocacher of the Month” Geocoin along with a Geocacher of the Month hat and certificate acknowledging their contributions signed by the founders of Geocaching.com: Jeremy Irish, Bryan Roth and Elias Alvord.

Our goal is to involve the entire geocaching community in this process so as to learn from each other. Let the nominations begin!