Open space reserve?

[JT1080]

I live in a historic area and in one of the locations i'm interested in detecting, is in the center of an open space reserve. You can pull up the reserve rules online and I couldn't find anything that mentions any sort of metal detecting.

Since it's on a reserve, I've been very hesitant on detecting it, even though I haven't found any rule saying you can't. Anyone have any knowledge about these open space reserves? Should I proceed with caution, or research other areas and forget about that location?

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

JT1080, I have detected those type spots, and not had any problems. You're in Calfornia, right? I presume those type land designations are the same as the ones with such titles, that I've encountered up here in central and northern CA: land that has been deeded (or held "in trust" or something) for the state or local govt. to eventually make into park land. But since the "wheels of progress" move slowly, and since state budgets don't have staff and budget to hire more rangers to expand parkland, so some land just stays in "preserve" or "reserve" or whatever status. Sometimes it's administered by a non-profit, pending the hoped-for-day that it will eventually be absorbed into the state-parks system.

For example: Big Basin park east of San Jose got a large swath of land added to it, a decade or two ago. However, since park staffing was in budget limbo, the land just stayed undeveloped, and not "technically" a part of the park system yet. Ie.: no rangers to staff it, so that even though it was publically owned already or something, yet it was not an extension of the park land yet. The story in the newspaper heralded it as being the final land-bridge that connected the inland park with a continuous trail-system all the way to the ocean to the west of the park. And some mountain bikers, upon reading in the newspaper about the new land acquisition, gleefully started riding their mountain bikes on trails which had previously been private property. To do so, they merely took their mountain bikes to the end of the dirt roads (where the previous boundry of the state park had been), hoisted their bikes over the gate, and kept on riding! In their mind, it was now 'public', afterall. Word soon got out amongst the mountain biker community, and scores more would do the scenic rides. However, I guess someone "took it upon themselves" to go ask if it was "open" to the public for biking. The answer that came back from the parks dept, was "no" (even though it had, by this time, become common-place!). Because "we do not have the current staffing levels to maintain the trails, etc....". So it was sort of a limbo state where .... yes it was public, but not technically in the park system yet, or some such technicalities. So ..... this didn't seem to stop most people from walking/hiking the trails (except those, I suppose, that insisted on asking a lot of questions).

So to apply that to your metal detecting question: The answer would probably be, that if you asked enough bureaucrats, high enough up the chain of command "can I?", you would eventually probably find yourself a "no". But so too can you find a "no" if you asked long enough and hard enough at even the most innocuous of city sand boxes too! (using key phrases like "holes" and "treasure" and "arpa", etc..... you can always fetch yourself a 'no').

Whether or not anyone actually really cares, or is even there to care or watch, will also depend on who is temporarily administering your reserve (if it's being "administered", that is). I know of one reserve in your area (perhaps its the one you're thinking of ?), where ....... because of the nature of the group who's administering it, and because it's so well-funded, and because it has actual historic sites on it, then ....... I suppose it would be a 'no' to you. Because although the rules don't mention "metal detectors", there is verbage about "cultural heritage". But this is just one type, and this actually has camping, day-use, and roving "rangers", although all private non-profit at the moment (pending eventual acquisition, they hope, by the state).

If it were me, and if I saw nothing *specifically* saying "metal detectors", and assuming there aren't roving busy-bodies, I'd just do it. But that's just me. I mean, if you're way back in the woods, where no one's at ......... ?

 

[JT1080]

Thank you for the great reply, Tom! I figured it was like you explained but I wasn't 100% sure. I appreciate the answer and the mountain biking example, it definitely helped me.

 

[Sandman]

Don't ask, just do it and leave no holes and carry out the trash.