Geocachers Participate in International Cache In Trash Out Day

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04/14/05 THLT 17:37 FA% 541 682 4882 EUGENE PW MNTNC & POS PW ADMIN ~ 002 E U G E N E Parka and o ea s ace N E~~/S R E LEAS E p ~ www.ci.eugene.o~ us/parks April 14, 2005 CONTACT: o Chuck Hammonds and Ruth Obadal, CITO event organizers and local geocachers, 868-5888 or mrbug@skyhost.net FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOTE to media: The clean-up event should be in full force by 11 a.m. For coverage of the cache hunt, visit the group around 1 p.m_ Geocachers Participate in International Cache In Trash Out Day On Saturday, April 16, geocachers from the Eugene-Springfield area will join geocachers in hundreds of countries from around the world in their first annual Cache In Trash Out (CITO) Day. From 10 a.m. to noon, the group will clean up trash in the woods near the intersection of 30th Avenue and Spring Boulevard, a popular area for geocaching. The location is on the north side of 30"' Avenue; the pavement dead ends in a barricade. The City's Volunteers in Parks program is providing the trash sticks and handwashing station. After lunch, ftom approximately 1 to 3 p.m., the group will hunt for six caches event organizers, Chuck Hammonds and his wife, Ruth Obadal, hid for the event. Already 35 people have signed up for the event. According to Hammonds, who has been geocaching for about eight months now, geocaching is a cross between a sport and a game in which individuals and organizations hide caches and share the locations of these caches on the Internet, and others hunt for these caches using a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit. As someone who loves to hike in natural areas, Hammonds says that he and other geocachers are very concerned about the impact this recreational activity could have on sensitive natural areas. "We really want to promote the practice of cache-in, trash-out and leaving the area cleaner than you found it," says Hammonds. The purpose of CITO is to "contribute to the maintenance of our outdoor spaces and to say thanks' to the land managers that help to make our parks a great place for geocaching." For more information about CITO, visit www.o~ching,com. For more information about geocaching locally, visit www.2bugs.org or www.ootcache.com. For more information about other park improvement projeds, call the City's Volunteers in Parks program at 682845, a-mail volunteersinparks@ci.eugene.or.us or visit www.ci.eugene.or.us/parks/maint/vip.htm.