MDC Laws

[nascarfan]

Hi, Was doing some research on a place on Missouri Department of Conservation Land. It says "No Hunting.....Special Rules Apply". Just curious if I can obtain permission to detect this land.....I am taking the sign to mean No Hunting as killing wildlife!!! Ok, maybe I might kill a worm or a grub or two, but would really like to hunt this area.......Any info or experiences with these poeple. What I don't want to see happen is getting ahold of someone who has no idea wheather or not you can be there, and just say no because the sky wasn't the right shade of blue that day....if ya know what I mean!! I have heard of people riding horses on this spot!! Thanks, Nascarfan

[dkw]

I've always been told that no detecting is allowed in conservation areas. Here are a couple of links addressing detecting on department land.

The bottom one in this link.

http://www.mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2002/03/reflect.htm

Here's the code referenced in the above link. It does specifically state "digging and other soil disturbance".

http://www.sos.mo.gov/adrules/csr/cu...sr/3c10-11.pdf

Maybe you could get the area manager to issue you a special use permit, but I doubt that he would.

[nascarfan]

Dkw, Hey thanks for the link, was afraid of that, back to the researching.......This site is awesome!! Nascarfan

[dkw]

It's a shame that we can't detect those areas. I know of 6 old homesites on MDC land within 10 miles of my house. I guarantee that there are a lot of hunters who do more damage to the land than I would. I'm not dogging hunters. I'm an avid hunter myself. I just don't see how a thoughtful and courteous detectorist would cause any kind of damage. Of course, the removal of state owned "artifacts" is a whole separate issue.

[Gribnitz]

I called and asked a while back about conservation areas. They told me I could detect, but I couldn't take anything off the property and not to dig up any of the protected plants or seeded areas.....like i would know a proctected plant from a petunia. So, bottom line, no.

[nascarfan]

I was talking with some friends about this and got onto the subject of how the Dept. actually ends up with this land........... IT'S DONATED TO THEM!! And then they turn around and not let anyone in there!! Top it all off with all of the money that I spend on deer tags, fishing permits, hunting permits, and the list goes on!!! I think they do a great service but it would be nice if they were a little more open to what people would like to do on this public property, so to speak, not to mention others out there who like horseback riding or hiking or whatever!! Nascarfan

[russau]

sometimes when land is donated to the state there are some conditions that go along with them. some of them being: not to be developed ever. kept as a nature preserve. wilderness only...and on and on! if the state violates any of these special conditions they could lose that land or be sued by breach of contract. just because we as tax payers are paying for the up keep of these lands dont mean that we can dictate any of the uses of it. thats just the way it is.

[ashleysflyr]

I hunt on MDC land. I went tot he projects office for the local area and asked, they gave me a special use permit, and a list of rules. The rules clearly define where I can detect. At those places, I can only dig in the sand, but I can surface detect anywhere I want. The only way I can get anything out of the ground is with a coin popper. Other restrictions include: One hand digging tool 12 inches or less, can't keep anything with a face value greater than $25, etc... Getting the permit was painless, took less than 10 minutes, just talked to them, read and signed the paper in front of them, they signed it, and I was on my way (this was Clarence Cannon Dam area).

~Tom