[meteorite-list] Fossils and Public Lands (10-23-01)

From: David Freeman <dfreeman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:47:10 2004
Message-ID: <3BED5E40.6000309_at_fascination.com>

Pardon my additional post....
Dear Readers...

I can lead you to hundreds of places where there are turtles and eocene
mammal bones erroding from the ground around here. I can show you
dinosaur bones by the ton in Utah. Once these "vertibrate-banned for
public collecting on public land "scientific value" ...and currently
protected bone"s errode to the surface where the amateur can find them,
they are erroded into a zillion pieces and basically have no scientific
use. To get the scientific out of these bones, one has to basically dig
them before they errode to the surface and become exposed to the elements.
Now, a back hoe and a dozer on private land is another story.... The
parallel with Meteorites is the same basically. I have found some very
old rusty shales that may have been meteoritic at one time...
but, maybe not...
Non-hoe,
Dave F.

gle_at_bellatlantic.net wrote:

>ERIC, You present a chilling scenario- GRANT ELLIOTT
>
>Starbits_at_aol.com wrote:
>
>>In a message dated 10-Nov-01 2:21:05 AM Pacific Standard Time,
>>capricorn89_at_earthlink.net writes:
>>
>><< <<The proposed legislation would expand the right of amateur collectors to
>>collect fossils on certain public lands and for the first time extend that
>>right to commercial collectors>>
>>
>> That part looks good. Seems that the issue is being given careful
>>consideration by the various interested groups. Yes? No? >>
>>
>>Hello Ron
>>
>>If you read the text of the bill you will see that the text you quoted above
>>is incorrect. If you want to collect on federal property you must have a
>>permit with the exception of a "casual collector". The casual collector can
>>only collect for non-commercial purposes; i.e. he can't sell it or charge
>>people to view what he finds. In addition if the item is a vertebrate or
>>some nonspecific rare plant or invertebrate then a permit is still needed.
>>If a permit is used to collect something then it belongs to the government,
>>period, no exceptions, no compensation mentioned or required.
>> So if you find a beautiful fossil skeleton you are supposed to leave it
>>right there and go to a bureaucrat to file for a permit. After they decide
>>if you are qualified to recover it (a specific condition of issuance) they
>>will give you a permit and you can go to the expense of recovering it. At
>>which time they will say thank you very much it is ours now.
>> Alternatively they could decide you are not capable and issue a permit
>>to a scientific institution instead and they, with nothing but time on their
>>hands and closets full of money, will immediately fly out the door to collect
>>it.
>> OR - the casual collector will just grab a hammer and chisel and bang it
>>out, take it home and put it on eBay. Unless he was caught in the act of
>>recovery or said it came from federal property nothing could be done.
>> Without compensation for permitted recovery this bill is fatally flawed.
>> It will not accomplish what it proposes to do which is save as much
>>scientific/educational material as possible.
>> One other statement in the bill is that fossils are a nonrenewable
>>resource. That is a significant difference from meteorites which are falling
>>all the time.
>>
>>Eric Olson
>>http://www.star-bits.com
>>
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Received on Sat 10 Nov 2001 12:05:04 PM PST