[Rockhounds] FW: The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act, HR554 and others . . .

[kugeln at peoplepc.com]

Please keep political opinions off the list. It's one thing to oppose 
restrictive laws regarding paleontological finds, quite another to offer 
global condemnations. Don't need that!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Glenn Wimpee" <pawpawtiger at hotmail.com>
To: <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 8:52 PM
Subject: [Rockhounds] FW: The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act, 
HR554 and others . . .


These greenies want the government to own and control everything and end all 
freedoms.

I like clean air and clean water, as well as private and public property.





The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act, HR554
H.R. 554 . Referral to the Committees on Agriculture and the Judiciary 
extended for a period ending not later than September 12, 2008.
STILL TIME TO CONTACT YOUR STATE REPRESENTIVES AND TELL THEM THAT THIS IS A 
"BAD" BILL.
Below are several articles about the Paleontological Resources Preservation 
Act, HR554. There is also a link to the actual text of the bill that is 
currently before the US House of Representatives. If this legislation 
passes, it will only be a matter of time before invertebrate and plant 
fossil collecting will be as extinct as the dinosaur fossils which we are no 
longer allowed to collect. What we have to do is to make sure that our 
legislators know that this bill, as written, is bad and that provisions for 
the amateur fossil collector's needs are preserved and protected just as 
much as the fossil remains we are trying to collect. Each and every one of 
us need to write or call our state committee members who are reviewing this 
bill to voice our ideas, concerns and opinions.
Please read, be informed and take action. Take action as individuals or 
formulate a club response, but act very soon or it may be too late to have 
any affect on the outcome of this legislation.

HR554  http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.554:
July 26, 2008 - by John M. Wright, AFMS Conservation & Legislation Chairman 
The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act, HR554, was resurrected again 
earlier this year and approved by the Agriculture and Judiciary committees. 
This bill is on a “fast track” for passage and will most likely be voted on 
by the House of Representatives shortly after their return from summer 
recess which means September or October unless there is some unforeseen 
delay.  It appears that a compromise has also been reached for Senate 
approval.  Two other legislative items of concern this year that are 
currently being considered by the House of Representatives are HR 2016, 
National Landscape Conservation System and HR 5610, Designation of 
Wilderness Areas.  If passed, these bills will essentially place 26 million 
acres of public lands controlled by BLM under a “National Park” type system 
which will eliminate or severely limit any type of recreational mining.  The 
BLM lands that are designated as Wilderness Areas would for all practical 
purposes be “off limits” for most any type of recreational activity.



Agriculture Committee Members: (from the southeast)
Collin C. Peterson, MN,  Chairman
Mike McIntyre, NC
Bob Etheridge, NC
David Scott, GA
Jim Marshall, GA
John Barrow, GA
Tim Mahoney, FL
Travis W. Childers, MS
Republican MinorityBob Goodlatte, VA,  Ranking Minority Member
Terry Everett, AL
Robin Hayes, NC
Mike Rogers, AL
Charles W. Boustany, Jr., LA
Virginia Foxx, NC





QUESTION:  " I thought collecting vertebrate fossils was *already* 
prohibited.. ."
This is actually correct.What isn't being made clear is that HR 554 (in its 
current wording) is the next step towards making INVERTEBRATE fossil 
collecting prohibited WITHOUT A PERMIT.In its current wording, this H.R. 554 
will authorize the Secretary of the Interior to decide which INVERTEBRATE 
fossil locality requires a permit for "casual collecting".  Down deeper in 
H.R. 554 this "authority" becomes even more strongly worded:SEC. 5. 
COLLECTION OF PALEONTOLOGICAL RESOURCES.(a) Permit Requirement-(1) IN 
GENERAL- Except as provided in this Act, a paleontological resource may not 
be collected from Federal lands without a permit issued under this Act by 
the Secretary.(2) CASUAL COLLECTING EXCEPTION- The Secretary MAY ALLOW 
casual collecting without a permit on Federal lands controlled or 
administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, 
and the Forest Service, where such collection is consistent with the laws 
governing the management of those Federal lands and this 
Act.------------ -------So, you're right. If we already have rules which 
prohibit the collection of vertebrate fossils, then why do we need this H.R. 
554 OTHER THAN TO START THE REGULATION OF CASUAL COLLECTING OF ANY 
FOSSIL.Keep that in mind when you write to your US representative.Forget 
about collecting vertebrate fossils. It's already prohibited.  Those horses 
have already left the barn. What you are fighting for now is to KEEP your 
right to casually collect plant and invertebrate fossils on public lands. 
(Petrified wood IS a fossil.)
"We don't need no stinkin' permits!"Those will only be given to researchers, 
anyway.  So, we're still talking about an eventual prohibition.
That's why H.R. 554 must be stopped."




John M. Wright, RPGAFMS Conservation & Legislation ChairmanHR 554 
Resurrected Again!The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act, HR554, has 
once again this year been resurrected, reviewed, and approved by the 
Agriculture Committee. It is now currently under review by the House 
Judiciary Committee and expected to clear that committee by July 18, 2008. 
This bill is on a “fast track” for passage and will most likely be voted on 
by the House of Representatives shortly after their return from summer 
recess which means September or October unless there is some unforeseen 
delay. I fully expect it to be quickly passed by voice vote, or quietly 
tacked onto some other major piece of legislation. It appears that a 
compromise has also been reached for Senate approval. While you may not 
agree with my assessment of this bill, it is important that we let all our 
members know that it is back on the table so to speak and hopefully they 
will take appropriate actionI want to emphatically remind you again, this is 
a dangerous piece of legislation that is going to hurt a lot of innocent 
people. The bill is so vague and open to interpretation that you can be 
arrested, have your vehicle impounded, and be tried for driving on a federal 
highway with a small rock wedged in the tread of your tires. As I said 
before, there is no requirement for the arresting officer to be 
knowledgeable regarding fossils or rocks, the burden of proof is your 
problem. I wonder what happened to innocent until proven guilty. Does the 
gravel in your driveway contain fossils? Your neighbor can turn you in for a 
nice reward. Secret “Area 51” type sites for paleontologist; sounds 
ridiculous, but unfortunately this bill authorizes it. Who is going to 
benefit from this bill? A few inconsiderate paranoid college professors and 
museum curators that seriously lack the competence to compete in a free 
market society. Actually, this group is really all about money in the form 
of job security, grants, books, articles, TV specials, and speaking fees. 
The fact that more than 90% of the major fossil discoveries are made by 
amateurs causes symptoms suffered by these “professionals” very similar to a 
severe case of hemorrhoids. “We the people” according to the Constitution 
own the federal lands and support them with our tax dollars, so why should a 
small special interest group be given exclusive rights to our lands? The 
justification used by paleontologist is to preserve rare fossils for future 
generations, but aren’t these the same scholars that warn us that the 
catastrophic circumstances that led to the demise of the dinosaurs and many 
other species in the past is going to happen again. They say “it’s not a 
matter of if, but when,” so according to their own philosophy the prospects 
for any future generations are not very good.They say that rockhounds 
(informed amateurs in their vernacular) destroy sites and remove critical 
evidence needed by the scientific community. Well, I recently spent several 
weeks reviewing paleontological articles and publications plus numerous 
other well known scientific publications covering a span of about 50 years 
and while I’m sure there must be many references to cleaning up excavation 
sites, I did not find any. However, I easily found “hundreds” of articles 
and references about leaving a site “as good as or better than found” in the 
American Federation of Mineralogical Societies’ monthly Newsletters, the 
seven area Federations of Mineralogical Societies’ monthly newsletters, and 
the numerous local Gem & Mineral Societies’ monthly bulletins. It sure seems 
to me like rockhounds (whoops – informed amateurs) are a little more 
concerned about conservation and protecting the environment than the 
scientific community.Once the scholars and curators acquire “our” fossils 
from “our” lands, they will be tucked away in storage areas at universities 
supported by “our” tax dollars, to be studied by students who we as parents 
“pay” tuitions for, and taught by professors whose salaries are paid by 
 “our” dollars and tuition fees. The museums built with “our” tax dollars 
and “our” donations will have experts whose salaries are paid by “our” taxes 
and donations prepare the fossils “owned by us” for display so “we the 
public” can see them for a “fee.” Talk about a stacked deck! A lot of 
politicians have benefited by riding on the environmental bandwagon, but 
with the price of gasoline skyrocketing, travel, food, utilities, building 
materials, and almost everything else going up astronomically, being “Green” 
is becoming more of a political liability than an asset. Someday, they may 
even come to the realization that people who spend their lives studying 
petrified bones and dinosaur poop don’t add a lot to the economy.Another 
important product of this legislation will be to further enhance the 
black-market trade. It’s already a lucrative business and this bill will 
just increase the price of American fossils overseas. With people, 
merchandise, and tons of narcotics being smuggled freely across our porous 
borders, moving fossils out of the country shouldn’t pose much of a 
problem.It is ironic, but we spend billions of dollars helping other nations 
gain independence, become democracies, and their people enjoy the benefits 
of freedom. Unfortunately, the same politicians that appropriate our tax 
dollars for this noble purpose turn right around and help implement policies 
to accommodate special interest groups that place far more restrictions on 
our freedoms here at home.Time is short to stop or change HR 554. About the 
only alternative we have left at this stage is to call our representatives 
and tell them how we feel about this bill. I know that many of you are leery 
when it comes to talking directly with dignitaries and that it may be 
difficult for you to contact your Representatives or Senators to talk with 
them in person. Most of the members of congress maintain offices in their 
districts and the staff members working for them at these offices are local 
people. If you call and talk with a member their staff, you will normally 
find them to be very friendly, courteous and easy to talk with because they 
want your vote and support. Most importantly, they pass information received 
from constituents on to their boss. If they get several calls, a red flag, 
so to speak, goes up indicating areas of importance. Often this is a better 
way to get the attention of your Representative as he or she wants and needs 
every vote to stay in office. Constituents usually are more influential than 
anyone else when dealing with legislators.I might add a note of interest at 
this point: our club sends a courtesy copy of our monthly bulletin (which 
includes my AFMS & SFMS articles) to both our U.S. Senators and our 
Representative. We have been told that it is well received and appreciated 
by them.

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