Montana Fireball
Full Member
- Apr 8, 2008
- 149
- 2
Etiquette and the Banning of Metal Detecting
Many times we read posts about the banning of metal detecting at such and such place. I was reading a new book about ghost towns and came across some interesting info which might shed some light upon the restrictions that are popping up everywhere in recent years. One group calls itself “Tread Lightly.” Their simple rules are: 1. Travel and recreate with minimum impact. 2. Respect the environment and the rights of others. 3. Educate yourself, plan and prepare before you go. 4. Allow for future use of the outdoors, leave it better than you found it. 5. Discover the rewards of responsible recreation. That didn’t seem all that bad, but further into the book I discovered another group of paragraphs which read as follows:
Historic trash dumps, outhouses, pits, and surface scatter can be scientifically valuable. Never dig up dumps, pits or outhouses. Doing so not only damages the scientific value of the site, but it is almost always illegal.
While using a metal detector might be fun, picking up artifacts or digging them up is not only destructive to the scientific value of the resource but it also highly illegal.
Then the bomb was dropped with the next paragraph!
It is important to note that the above behavior is, in general, illegal. Whether you are on private or public property there are trespass and destruction laws that protect private lands. Equally, theft and destruction laws provide civil and criminal penalties for damaging federal, state and county/city properties.
WOW! No wonder folks are finding a hard time locating a place to swing their coils. This is what is making its way to communities all across the country.