Joshua's Land Trust

About two weeks ago we hid seven caches on the David Storrs Chapin Coney Rock Preserve in Mansfield, CT. To our dismay Pofe, the local reviewer at Geocaching.com, sent us an email saying these caches could not be approved because Joshua's Land Trust properties are considered to be private property. The local reviewer always plays by the rules, but hey that is the responsibility of these volunteers who devote lots of their time, and who can argue with playing by the rules. We were also told that if we could get permission that the review process would go forward, so we still had hope that we wouldn't have to go back and remove the caches. The first task at hand was to research and collect information about the Joshua's Land Trust before making a decision as to how to move forward. We were able to find that the President is Madge Manfred, then found her phone number and email address and some information about her background and duties as President. Our next step was to both email and call Madge to find out how best to proceed. It turned out that Madge is very personable, is always looking for new ways to promote the Trust Properties and she is a great asset to the organization. After the first contact she was in favor of having geocaches on the property, but as a formality wanted to put it to a vote with the Board of Directors. We agreed to put a link to Joshua's Land Trust on this blog and sent her information to present to the board including a brief explanation about geocaching, CITO (including a link about a local CITO event in Vernon on this blog and a copy of an article of the event in a local news publication), and the possible benefits to the Joshua's Land Trust. Probably the toughest part was waiting on pins and needles for ten days until the next Board meeting. The board voted in favor of geocaching on Trust Properties. The overall experience was very rewarding. We learned alot about this great organization and feel good that we were able to promote geocaching to the community.

The mission of the Trust is to supplement local, state and federal government efforts in preserving open space in Eastern Connecticut. Properties The Trust owns or protects by easements, over 3000 acres of open space land. It is a non-profit organization that operates on donated money, sales of the Joshua's Trust Walkbook, donated land and volunteers that not only administer the properties, but also maintain them. The membership fee is only $10 for an individual or $20 for a family and there are higher levels for donors, patrons, benefactors and corporate/lifetime contributions. Becoming a member is easy. Just go to the Join Joshua's Trust web page, print out the form and send it in to the address on the form. You can also contribute to the Trust in the name of someone else by going to the Joshua's Trust Gift web page.

We would like the thank: Pofe for being patient with us and giving us time to work on a presentation to the Trust, Madge for all her help in telling how best to get permission from the board, AND a BIG THANK YOU from the Joshua's Land Trust Board Members for allowing us hide caches on this scenic property.