I live up in the Winchester/Frederick county area. I will start detecting in the spring and if anyone else is in my area please let me know. I also found out the rules about our county parks.
I sent the county an email asking what the policies were in regards to Metal Detecting. So based on her email below I see we can detect we cannot dig unless we get written permission.
You may metal detect in the parks but please be aware of the park rule stating "digging or excavating on park property is prohibited unless written permission is granted by the Parks and Recreation Director or his designee."
Karen Vacchio
Public Information Officer
Frederick County Parks and Recreation
(540)665-5678 or (540)722-8307(direct)
Frederick County, VA -- Parks and Recreation
tims-1-chap, Let me save you some time in the future (so you don't need to send email inquiries in the future): EVERY speck of public land
everywhere, will .... of course .... have rules that have some form or variation of that. You know, like text that disallows "alteration" or "defacement" or "excavation" or "vandalism" and so forth. I mean, what did you expect? For a city or county person to say: "
Sure go ahead and excavate, vandalize, and deface the park" ? No, of course not. Of course if you walk in or email and say "Hi, can I dig in the park please?" naturally they're going to say "no". And notice that you did not even MENTION digging in your email, did you? (at least that's the way I read your post). But lo & behold, it's simply the image that some deskbound persons have (geeks with shovels leaving a mess).
Here's the deal: Despite such verbage existing everywhere (that WAY predate metal detectors), detecting goes on all the time at parks, schools, beaches, campgrounds, fairgrounds, forests, etc.... The reason is: ALL such verbage distinctly and inherently applies to the end result, right? In other words, if you leave the area exactly as found it, with no trace of your presence (fill your hole, stomp it hard and flat, ruffle up the spot with your fingers, etc...), then technically speaking, you have not "defac
ed" "alter
ed" "vandaliz
ed" anything, RIGHT? Sure, someone might come up and debate the semantics of that, and the temporary evil process of extraction. But ...... unless you're being a total eyesore, bothering sensitive historic monuments, or waltzing over beach blankets at an archie convention, you can detect the average park (in the absence of a specific prohibition of detecting, which is
not the case in your email answer), and most of the time, you'll be un-bothered. Go at low traffic times, and avoid such lookie-lous, and the odds are, no one cares.
For example, I have no doubt that those very parks for which you got that answer, are probably detected by others who've gone before you, and/or right now (and yes digging up targets), and .... unless they were being a nuisance in some other way, are not having a problem. Such was the case in my city, someone took it upon themselves to go ask "can I?" (new to the city, and thought they'd "better make sure"). They found someone in city hall to tell them "no". Well this was news to us old-timers, who'd detected here for 20 yrs. by then with no problem. So you see, there's a prevalent psychology that can happen of "no one caring, till you ask".
Thus in the future, look up the rules, for wherever you intend to go, for yourself (city and county rules, laws, muni codes, etc.. are usually available on-line somewhere, or down at city or county hall in binder form on the front desk). If you see nothing saying "no metal detectors", then ....... there you go. If the other verbage that can be morphed to apply to your "pressing question" make you skittish, then .... I guess you're going to have to hunt for objects on top of the ground. Because as I say, text like that exists everywhere. Or you can stick to private property.
