By Wes Skinner (NorthWes)

This is an update on compliance with terms of the 2026 Geocaching Permit issued by Alaska State Parks.

1. August 31, 2026 was the target date established by GeocacheAlaska! Inc. for geocachers to work towards in bringing their cache placements within Alaska State Parks into compliance with terms of the new 2026 permit requirements. Here are notes on progress in meeting compliance goals:
   As of August 21, we’ve reached approximately 40% compliant status across all state parks. We’re expecting a dramatic increase in this compliance rate after the August 30th event set in Eklutna valley, with the purpose of removing geocaches associated with the HELP power trail along Eklutna Lake. Please continue your efforts to get ‘owner maintenance’ logs completed on geocaches you own (or where you’ve agreed to act as a proxy for owners who are unable to reach the geocache themselves). See point #2 below for preferred best language to use in logging your owner maintenance visit. Note that compliance with this requirement is being monitored by GeocacheAlaska! Inc.’sAdvocacy Committee using the Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK) application. After August 31, caches without owner maintenance logs may be disabled by Greatland Reviewer, generally giving one more month to attain compliance with permit conditions. If you receive a “Temporary Disable” note from the local reviewer on your geocache, read the log and the prior reviewer note carefully to see how you can bring your cache into compliance.
2. Recommended owner maintenance log templates (both physical and online):
   Tip: add a photo of the cache logsheet to the online owner maintenance log showing this language to help with confirming compliance! If you act as a proxy, make sure you obtain cache owner agreement ahead of time.
   1.  Annual Owner Maintenance for Alaska State Parks permit number LAS-35694.  Cache container inspected and log signed, as required.”
   2. “Annual Owner Maintenance for Alaska State Parks permit number LAS-35694 performed by pre-arranged proxy with CacherX.  Cache container inspected and log signed by CacherX on behalf of the Cache Owner.”
3. Alaska State Parks states it is unable to supply GeocacheAlaska! Inc. with shape files for the more than one hundred state park campgrounds where geocaches are not allowed.
   Alaska State Parks replied to our request for state park campground shape files with this statement: “We believe the location of a developed/designated campground should generally be readily identifiable to someone placing or maintaining a cache. A cache owner should not need a GIS layer to determine whether they are placing a cache within an established campground—for example, an area with designated campsites, campground facilities, access roads, signage, etc.” Thus, individual geocachers are responsible for ensuring their geocache placements meet the terms of this statement, and we further recommend that geocachers keep their caches at least 0.1 mile outside of the areas described by Alaska State Parks as ‘readily identifiable’ as an established campground. As always, individual geocachers are responsible for meeting the conditions of use set by land managers.
4. GeocacheAlaska! Inc. will not be reporting virtual caches or earthcaches as part of the 500-cache limit count to Alaska State Parks. The type of ‘noncompliant use’ of state park lands allowed by permit involves physical geocache containers owned by private individuals which are left on public lands. The no-container aspect of both virtual caches and earthcaches removes them from the count.
5. Additional known land use policies for Alaska may be found at the following links: Wiki: https://gcwiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GEO/pages/526814/Alaska.  The link may also be found at the bottom of https://gcak.org/advocacy/

by Wes Skinner (NorthWes)

As August ends, we geocachers are about to see the onset of fall. This means access to geocaches placed in the wild areas of parks and forests will begin to become more challenging, with snow easily possible at higher elevations by the end of September. Strong efforts by individual  geocachers have produced positive results regarding our efforts to bring all geocaches placed on Alaska State Parks into compliance with the new 2026 permit allowing geocaching to occur on state park lands. As of August 21, 40% of all geocaches on all state park lands are deemed  compliant with the permit. More than 300 geocaches have been archived, helping us reach towards the permit cap of 500 geocaches total in Alaska State Parks.

The update article contains language we’d like to see used in logging an owner inspection under terms of the permit. Photograph your physical log and include that in the online log! This language allows us to more easily verify owner maintenance efforts as we’re using GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) to track status of geocaches on state park lands. Note that we have included a format to document when an owner maintenance visit is performed by proxy (meaning someone whom the cache owner has given permission to for performing the owner maintenance visit). The proxy log helps us keep accountability for how maintenance actions are occurring. Here are those suggested log versions (as also seen in the update article):

1. “Annual Owner Maintenance for Alaska State Parks permit number LAS-35694.  Cache container inspected and log signed, as required.
2. “Annual Owner Maintenance for Alaska State Parks permit number LAS-35694 performed by pre-arranged proxy with CacherX.  Cache container inspected and log signed by CacherX on behalf of the Cache Owner.”

As president, I’m striving to keep a positive mental attitude as I work through my personal emotions generated while working through the issues related to complying with the new permit. There’s been a broad spectrum of negative feelings, and I’m sure you’ve experienced many of them as well. I want to thank our volunteer community reviewer (Greatland Reviewer – Mike Malvick) and our Advocacy Committee member Roy Pace for their suggestions, input, and many many hours of hard work in helping work out the details of implementing the new terms of this permit. Without their work and and feedback, the positive progress we’re tracking would not have been possible.

Again – winter is coming. Please strive to get out and perform cache maintenance visits (and log them online!) so that your geocaches keep their place in Alaska State Parks. And, if necessary, enlist the help of others to reach out and take care of geocaches you’re not able to access right now. We have a suggested proxy log for those visits, and there are quite a few local geocachers eager to help out in achieving successful cache maintenance visits. Don’t hesitate to archive geocaches as necessary, and keep a positive attitude as we strive to become compliant with the permit.