[Rockhounds] FW: FOSSIL HUNTING HOBBY IN DANGER Fw: Public LandUsage Bills

[Frank Daniels]

This is not a hoax. The same bill comes up every so often at the urging of
professional paleontologists. It would prohibit collecting all fossils, even
petrified wood, on federal land, including BLM. While there is a clause that
allows the Secretary of the Interior to permit casual collecting, this is
not mandated and is completely up to the discretion of the Secretary of the
Interior. In my experience, when bureaucrats are given discretion to allow
something or not, they don't - just because that is the easy answer for
them.

Frank

PS This Bill is probably dead for the current session, but will return. I
called my elected representatives about it a few months ago. 


Frank Daniels Minerals & Fossils
2024 Freedom Court
Grand Junction, CO  81507
minerals at frankdanielsminerals.com
www.frankdanielsminerals.com



-----Original Message-----
From: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com
[mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] On Behalf Of Gary Brown
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 12:27 PM
To: 'Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors'
Subject: RE: [Rockhounds] FW: FOSSIL HUNTING HOBBY IN DANGER Fw: Public
LandUsage Bills

Read the whole bill here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-3213

Here's clause 644:
(2) CASUAL COLLECTING EXCEPTION- The Secretary may allow casual collecting
without a permit on Federal land 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 land and this subtitle.

It's not a total prohibition.

BTW, it is BAD FORM to copy an email loaded with the email addresses of
other folks.

GcB

> -----Original Message-----
> From: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com 
> [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] On Behalf Of 
> Lawrence Bull
> Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 1:18 PM
> To: Andre Bourque; Rockhounds; Ron Hammeron
> Subject: [Rockhounds] FW: FOSSIL HUNTING HOBBY IN DANGER Fw: 
> Public LandUsage Bills
> 
> 
> 
> ....

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