City-Wide Approval

[LinkHylian]

After hours of searching online and looking at our RCW codes I finally caved and sent our Parks and Recreation Department an email regarding metal detecting in the city parks. I had read a few horror stories online and I've had a few friends tell me some instances of the cops telling them off and threatening to take their detector.
The email I sent to them(some has been cut for length/privacy reasons):

"Good Morning,

I wasn’t sure if I should just come into the S. Center to speak with you about this or if email was more appropriate. I suppose I’ll start here and see where this takes me. I’ll do my best to make it quick: I am interested in Metal Detecting the city parks. I have not been able to locate any rules/laws that govern this except for the “State” Parks of WA.

I would abide by the same rules as the State Parks/City Parks, i.e allowable tools and time frames of day along with all the rest. The link at bottom shows rules and RCW references.(I did not include link on this post) All pull tabs and trash would be picked up as well as all holes being filled in. If there were activities going on I would detect somewhere else and skip that park entirely. I have no interest in artifacts, as I know that is the main concern from Archeologists towards my hobby.

Please do consider my request. I’d hunt alone normally, some days my girlfriend would tag along with me though. I hope that I am speaking to the right people about this, however if I am not, could you please point me in the right direction? If you’d like to speak with me in person I’d love to come in and chat. If this is allowed I would need something in writing that I could take with me while detecting.

Thank you for your time,

Ben"

Here's the response, not even two days later!!:

"We will allow you to metal detect in our general parks. However, we do not want people digging with shovels. Methods of investigation should be done with small spade type instruments and if turf is lifted out of place, it should be pressed back into place and stepped on to make it firm. If we were to see someone going beyond what we deem acceptable, we would make contact with them and ask them to stop, if they continue or we see them in similar actions again, we will contact our Police Department."

I will have over 30 parks available to me with over 5 of them being around since 1910!!!! I have never seen any detectorists EVER and I've been here for years. The original emails I am going to print and then go to Kinko's for a thin lamination. If you are in WA State around May/June and want to do some park hunting then send me a p.m. I have no problems sharing this good fortune with any of you. Of course all will be split 50/50, regardless if I find it or not

 

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[LinkHylian]

I see I see. Brilliant. I shall start doing that myself, or just spitting on them afterwards haha jk.

I believe what he is referring to, is to moisten the plug thoroughly, so that it's more likely for the roots to re-attach, stay alive and rejoin the surrounding roots. Because sometimes, if you've ever been to a park where you've hunted when the ground is dry, and you've cut plugs .......... if you come back a week later, sadly, you'll often-time see a bunch of brown circles (doh!) where the plug died. By wetting them down, theoretically, they're less likely to die.

 

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