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

[Alan Silverstein]

Based on emails recently from the outgoing president of the AFMS, I did
a little web searching, and found current status for HR554 and SB3213.
You can find them too.  They were both read out of committee in May/Aug
of this year (if I recall right), but no further action.

I tried to decipher the SB3213 wording, what was so awful about it?  It
wasn't entirely clear, it's pretty long.

I happened to talk with a BLM paleontologist.  He said (if I understand
right) that this legislation would merely codify as law some existing
regulations, making them uniform and more robust.  That didn't sound so
bad by itself.  According to him, right now for example, digging up dino
bones on BLM land is NOT a felony (I thought it was), it's "just" a $500
fine, although they try to throw other violations at the perps if they
can, like having to do remediation.  It sounded to me like the main
concern about these bills was from commercial collectors violating the
spirit if not the letter of the current laws/regs.  Taking away pickup
truckloads of materials to sell, etc.

I really don't know...  I'm interested in hearing facts and opinions...

Myself, I rather like having lots of public land out here in the west
(Colorado etc) because in practice I find it a whole lot easier and
friendlier to access than private property -- even though in many other
ways I agree with the Libertarian position.

Cheers,
Alan Silverstein