Who owns the side of the highway?

[Ninjafossils]

I have dug on public land never experiencing an issue with any sort of law enforcement, land owners, angry jackasses etc. I am getting two days off from classes down here in Nashville and am not flying home, so I figured why not collect some of the rich invertebrate fossil remains. According to the Bureau of Land Management (The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, Public Law 111-011. P.L. 111-011, Title VI, Subtitle D on Paleontological Resources Preservation (known by its popular name as the PRPA), it is legal to collect common invertebrates without a permit on all BLM land. I never worry about collecting without a permit on these lands but because I am in a different state, I want to be 100% sure that I am protected. My question is who owns the land that is clearly not private property all the edges of a highway such as Route 70 S in Nashville. Is this BLM land?

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

No, road-side right-of-ways are not BLM land. On any hwy, of any entity (county, state, federal) there is always a distance , measured from the center line, out into the peripheries, where the "right-of-way" is. Such that the edge of pavement is not the technical boundary. It includes the shoulder and a distance beyond that out into the landscape. This is so that there's room to pull over like if you got a flat tire, etc... And room for road crews to have staging areas, room for road-side landscape, and so forth.

And in some places and states, this "right of way" can be ridiculously wide ! Like out of the deserts of the SW (in the middles-of-nowhere) it can extend out footballs fields (or miles?) wide

And if pedestrian usage (walking or being along side a road) is not dis-allowed, I highly doubt that there's any forbiddance of "picking up fossils" .

 

[Deft Tones]

Tom steered you right.

The state probably owns the land.

I'd bring a garbage bag along and pick up a bit of trash as an explaination for being there. It can't be helped if you get side tracked finding interesting invertebrates while providing a free community service.

Good luck!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

....I'd bring a garbage bag along and pick up a bit of trash as an explaination for being there. It can't be helped if you get side tracked finding interesting invertebrates while providing a free community service. ....

Genius. Put on a yellow vest, get one of those long-handled spring-gripper-grabber tools, and go "picking up garbage". But even then, I have my doubts that anyone cares less. Or is out there to scrutinize what someone is picking up or doing. Odds are, a man along-side the road is simply ignored (unless you're being a nuisance darting into traffic, or standing/walking right on the very-edge of the pavement along-side rushing traffic ?)

Assuming of course it's not the type freeway where there's signs at the on-ramp that say "no pedestrians beyond this point", etc.... But for roads that have no dis-allowance for pedestrians, no need for us md'rs to "over-think" this. As if we need red-carpets rolled out for us, and that our activity is evil/harmful enough that it needs someone's express blessing, etc....

 

[kcm]

Gonna be very difficult to improve on the above posts, so I won't even try!!


To better help understand right-of-way, I can use my remote area for an example. Around our house, there are no state roads. However, there are county and township. And with township, there are maintained and non-maintained roads. Not too far away is a road that is non-maintained. While the grader grades the road now and then, it is never plowed in the wintertime, as there are no residences down there. Now, the road, itself, isn't even wide enough for 2 cars to pass without each car having 2 wheels in the grass. However, the right-of-way for this small road is 50' from center, or 100' total. For a normal 2-lane (one in each direction) county road, I believe it is 100' from center, or 200' total. I honestly don't have a clue when it comes to multi-lane roads, especially in built-up urban areas, but the basic principle remains the same.

LOVE the idea about putting on a vest and carrying a trash bag!! ...Better keep a spare trash bag in your rear pocket as well.

 

[Deft Tones]

KCM added good info. In fact,just yesterday I was on some level "b" county roads, and my first ever "class c" road...whatever that is. Not maintained as far as I can tell.

It's been many years since I've visited TN, but I think I70 is a state highway, if I recall correctly. That would likely make it state land.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... It's been many years since I've visited TN, but I think I70 is a state highway, if I recall correctly. That would likely make it state land.

And let's clarify that not all state land has the same rules-of-use. There are different TYPES of state land. So for example: If TN state parks had some sort of prohibition on md'ing in their state parks, then this only applies to their state PARKS. Not necessarily other types state land (road right-of-way in this case).

But again, to worry about this is to be "over-thinking" it. I highly doubt any passer-bys care less or glance twice at a man walking along side the road, studying the ground for fossils.

 

[Honest Samuel]

Go for it, until a cop say No.

 

[Ninjafossils]

UPDATE:
I found a better site a little bit closer and NOT alongside the highway. You can see the report here: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/fossils/519178-sea-zaxby-s.html