Orienteering
- To organize an orienteering event or place a control point in any City of Ann Arbor Park or Nature Area a person or group must first obtain a permit. These can be obtained, at no cost, from the Natural Area Preservation (NAP) office by mail, fax, email, or in person.
- Control points must be unobtrusive for non-orienteering park users and not attract attention to its location.
- When placing a control point do not disturb the surrounding environment in any way. This includes digging holes, cutting vegetation, or attaching the control point to trees that in any way damages the live tissue of the tree.
- Locate the control point in a safe area. Think about the safety of people who will be looking for the control point and use common sense for appropriate placement of the control point.
- A control point must be located at least 200 feet from a “preserve” or out of bounds area. Preserves and out of bounds areas are indicated on aerial maps that will be given to the person or group who applies for an orienteering permit. Restriction or exceptions may be made at the discretion of the NAP staff depending on the expected impact of the activity in a natural area.
- Set up control points so people can use the established trails system as much as possible.
- When conducting an orienteering event, groups must abide by City of Ann Arbor Park hours and regulations.
- After each event the control point should either be removed or relocated at least 500ft. away from where is was place for the event. This should be done in coordination with the NAP staff.
Please be aware that if a large number of caches are placed NAP may have to put limits on the number of caches allowed in each park.
The City reserves the right to remove any cache that is in an inappropriate location, causing undo impacts on the ecosystem, or deemed unsafe.
These guidelines were written to protect the well-being of our natural areas, the safety of all park users, and allow for the future use of the Ann Arbor park system for geocachers.