A5150S, thanx for your 32 yrs. service to our communities !
Yes, you're right about the fact that if something is not prohibited, then it's not illegal. Isn't that known in legal terms as "implied consent"? Anyhow, you go to say:
"In CA it is very illegal to dig in state and federal parks. Any other public place is OK, "
What part of CA are you in? But in any case, this issue of "digging" would even be "illegal" (if you asked long enough and hard enough of enough city and county people) even at the city and county level. I mean, let's face it: even in humble innocuous city parks, there's always still verbage disallowing "alterations" of "defacement" or "vandalism" or some such wording. Right? But the CATCH is, that all such verbage inplicitly refers to the end result. If you don't leave a trace, then presto, you haven't alter
ED anything, no have you? So for persons to go wondering "can I dig?" and studying laws, or asking people, along those lines, .... they might as well give up now, and choose another hobby. Because the rules about such things exist in some form or another. But the *reality* is, as long as you're not a nuisance, leave no trace ... and avoid such lookie-lous, no one really cares.
As for all state parks in CA being off-limits (which you claim), here's a mind-bender for you: The parks dept that over-sees the in-land parks, is the very same parks dept. which oversees the state-of-CA beaches too. And you can detect state of CA beaches till you're blue in the face, and no one cares. But if you asked long enough and hard enough, there's *technically* no reason that any type of "cultural heritage wording" or "digging and alterations" verbage, or "collecting and harvesting" verbage, etc... WOULDN'T also apply to the beaches here too. Then ask yourself: Why then, can you detect state-of-CA beaches till you're blue in the face, and no one ever cares? (yup, right in front of rangers as a matter of fact): BECAUSE NO ONE'S EVER GONE TO SACRAMENTO WITH THIS PRESSING QUESTION before, doh! One time a buddy of mine caught flack on Seacliff state beach, from a passing state archie. The archie tried to tell him he had to stop, that it was illegal, etc... (because he might "find something old", blah blah). The two of them squared off, and argued a bit, before the archie huffed off in disgust. It was just a big fluke that the archie was even there at that beach that day. Turns out he'd driven down to the coast that day, to give a lecture or something at the beach-side museum there. And just HAPPENED to look down on the beach and see my friend. When my friend relayed this info to others of us on a CA specific forum, a few people figured "we'd better go get this clarified" or "let's put this guy in his spot and prove him wrong", etc.. But the more we looked into the actual written rules, laws, etc... the more we realized that things are BETTER LEFT ALONE, and treat that as a fluke. That was 15 yrs. ago, and .... to this day .... you can still hunt state-of-CA beaches, and no one cares. But sure, if you asked enough archies or lawyers, (be sure to have a shovel in your hand a copy of ARPA to show them), then sure, you'd eventually find someone to tell you "no".
Then you say:
"Don't argue with cops and rangers about what is legal, youmay be right but you will still lose. Find another spot for a few weeks, they will forget all about you."
Hah, that's pretty good coming from a retired cop! And it's so true! You guys have MUCH BIGGER FISH TO FRY, and ... yes .... responding to some busy-bodies complaint about a guy in a park with a detector, will be forgotten. In fact, I bet in a lot of those situations, the cop himself could care less, but they are duty-bound to respond if someone said something silly like "there's a man in the park with a weapon" or whatever. But it's like you say: give lip service, be polite, etc... And then give it a rest (6 months or whatever), and odds are, they're isolated incidents. For example: I was booted by a lady cop in a park in a certain town one day. Who knows? Maybe she was in a bad mood? Maybe someone called in and said we were doing harm? I dunno. Anyhow, we were just getting ready to leave, so I didn't make a fuss, and left. Now I suppose I could have gone to city hall and "sought clarification". Or I could have taken that booting as "being some sort of precedent that the parks in that town were off-limits", etc.. But since I don't pass through this town too often, it wasn't an issue. Later in the year, when passing through the town again, I detected more. That was over 10 yrs. ago, and I've been back dozens of times. NEVER HEARD A PEEP AGAIN! So you're right: we need not always take such a booting as law, or precedent, etc.... It's often just that you were sticking out like a sore thumb, or perhaps they happened to be driving past when you were in the middle of a deep retreival, etc.. So be a bit more discreet, and pick off-traffic times, so as to not have that happen
