As our activity gets more publicity we will have organizations such as the Sierra Club take an interest in what we are doing to make sure that we are not trashing the environment. I have some suggestions that may be practical...
Lets not get confrontational.
1) Lets have some clear guidelines published on the geocache web site that make it clear to people hiding stashes that they should ensure that the stash is not located in some fragile area where stash hunters would likely cause any damage. Emphasize ecological responsibility.
2) Let's get them involved. Ask them to propose a set of guidelines and let's see what they come up with.
3) Start some sort of certification - such as notifying the local Sierra Club representative to come out and check out the site themselves before the location gets published on the web. Such caches could have the 'Sierra Club mark of approval' icon next to it....
4) perhaps we should have stickers printed that we can place on the outside of our stashes - a notice to anyone finding it that this is not litter, it has not been abandoned, we know where it is and will not be causing any environmental damage.
I am sure there are more ideas but the main is let's work with them and not against them. After all we are getting people out into the open air and enjoying the environment.
Don't start talking about booby trapping stashes. Some idiot will do it and kill some innocent stash hunter and their children..
And perhaps we need to start using terminology that is less offensive - instead of hunters - what about stash seekers. Instead of calling it a game, what about 'activity' or some such word that does not make it sound like trivial fun (is it any less trivial than any other sport?)
Lets stay calm and act sensibly otherwise this new sport will suffer.