So do you guys think I can get away with detecting in my citys parks?

[Scooby903]

So do you guys think I can get away with detecting in my city's parks?

Here is the ordinance that I'm worried about:

Sec. 1.10.062 Injuring vegetation, structures or other property

It shall be unlawful for any person to cut, break, deface or in any way injure the trees, shrubs, plants, grass, turf, fountains, seats, fences, structures, improvements, ornaments, monuments, or property within or upon any of the public parks. (2001 Code, sec. 96.02)

 

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[lookindown]

Ehem, just use a screwdriver, nothing else, so when somebody says thats going to hurt the turf, just tell them, hey the best lawns around have the grass aerated, ( incase you do not know what that is, it is long spikes driven into the grass )
So in other words you are making the grass better by poking holes into it, its hard to argue that point.

Mike

I was at a park one day detecting the playground. The park manager came by and told me to stay away from the sports fields. I told him that I saw the no detecting signs and that metal detecting was misunderstood by most people. I told him that I hunt soccer fields using only a screwdriver to probe for shallow targets. He said he wouldn't even like me doing that on HIS fields. I told him the soccer players cleats do a hell of a lot more damage than I could ever do. He said he didn't like the soccer players either. With that I said "there is something wrong with you" and walked off and left him standing there. There are some stupid people in the world and getting stupider every day.

 

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[NYwaterhunter]

I have asked the local police department several times in different cities.
They all ways say no problem, don't leave a mess.
Get the officers name that says yes in case your questioned later.
Then you can focus on the hunt and not have to look over your back.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

I have asked the local police department several times in different cities.
They all ways say no problem, don't leave a mess.
Get the officers name that says yes in case your questioned later.
Then you can focus on the hunt and not have to look over your back.

NY-waterhunter, while:

a) what you are saying might/would deflect *some* busy-bodies, and

b) it's certainly an improvement over asking city park's people (since cops have much bigger fish-to-fry, and will be more inclined to see md'ing as innocuous),

Yet it's also been shown to be toothless and fail in multiple other occasions. The oft-cited scenario goes like this: The md'r goes to the police (or city people or whomever) to "get permission". Then they gleefully get the name of the person, as you say (or even to the extent of "getting it in writing! ) Then the md'r gets accosted in the field by a busy-body. But no problem: The proudly whip out their permission or name-to-cite. The busy-body then merely gets on their cell-phone, calls down to the police or city hall person and says: "But he's tearing the place up!" (which isn't true, of course, but guess who'll be on the loosing end of the semantics of that?). And then guess what happens to your "permission"? It is promptly revoked. This scenario has been played out many times in various posts.

But sure, sometimes a busy-body slinks away embarassed for having stopped you, of course. So you might be inclined to say: "well, it deflects some busy-bodies, so why not still do it?". My answer to that is, that by asking, you risk a "no", where there's no real rule that says that, nor would anyone have ever cared or noticed (till you asked). Not sure which is the greater of evils, but they both happen. Glad your success rate is 100% so far, don't get me wrong. But I have also heard of persons going to the police like you do, and getting a "no". Or something strange like "yes, but you have to turn in everything you find, because it belongs to the city", or "yes but you can't dig" (even though you never mentioned digging. Or "go ask permission from the park's dept as that's their domain", and so forth.

 

[NYwaterhunter]

Tom
Good points

 

[Dasseldig]

Here is a funny and true story. A week ago I was at a county park MD'ing. I started on the beach, then moved into the grass around a picnic area. Shortly after I hit the grass, the park caretaker approached me, and said "I know what you are doing, and you can't do that there" "You are damaging the grass, and there is an ordinance against that". He said it was ok if I hit the beach but the grass was off limits. I was digging with my Leash digger, and popping nothing deeper than 2". I showed him that I was doing no damage, but he was being a stubborn PITA. Just about that time I notice a squirrel throwing a heap of dirt out of a hole it had dug to bury some acorns. I said to him, "you must not have talked with him yet?" I kept on MD'ing and told him I was just going to pick up what I found on the surface. He wasn't to happy, but he did leave after watching me for a bit longer. Needless to say I didn't dig anything while he was there. Oh ya, I even showed him the heaping bag full of trash I had collected while I was there, but of coarse he didn't care.

 

[louie41]

Here is a funny and true story. A week ago I was at a county park MD'ing. I started on the beach, then moved into the grass around a picnic area. Shortly after I hit the grass, the park caretaker approached me, and said "I know what you are doing, and you can't do that there" "You are damaging the grass, and there is an ordinance against that". He said it was ok if I hit the beach but the grass was off limits. I was digging with my Leash digger, and popping nothing deeper than 2". I showed him that I was doing no damage, but he was being a stubborn PITA. Just about that time I notice a squirrel throwing a heap of dirt out of a hole it had dug to bury some acorns. I said to him, "you must not have talked with him yet?" I kept on MD'ing and told him I was just going to pick up what I found on the surface. He wasn't to happy, but he did leave after watching me for a bit longer. Needless to say I didn't dig anything while he was there. Oh ya, I even showed him the heaping bag full of trash I had collected while I was there, but of coarse he didn't care.

I was gonna say something similar, I see squirrels around here leaving more visual damage to grass than detectorists.

 

[McKinney_5900]

Every park, in every city, in the entire USA has such verbage, in some form or fashion. But no, they do not necessarily equate to: "no md'ing". The reason is as rickv14623 says: All such texts inherently apply to the end result. Thus if you leave the area with no trace of your presence, then you technically have not done any of those things listed there. Ie.: you have not injurED, anything.

Might there be some busy-body who debates that semantics? SURE! Avoid such lookie-lous and go at low traffic times. Like picking your nose: not necessarily illegal .... but .... you and I *still* choose discrete times so as not to be an eyesore.

Same as what Tom said. I've not found single city government set of regs that doesn't include something like, "No damaging to landscape, removal of trees and scrubs, or damage to the grass." In some flavor, I believe ALL govt policies reads something like this. Having said that, we hunt several local parks here anyway. As far as I can tell, the parks have always been hunted for years.

I lost a year of great hunting on both old parks here by over analyzing the rules. Seriously! I had me a $1500 detector and lived 10 minutes away fron both parks and stayed home due to fear about these regs. All the while, all the guys whom I eventually got to know later, had been drilling these places and pulling lots of goodies.

You know what I might do if I had it to do over again? Go to the parks in question, maybe without the detector or leave it in the trunk, and stroll around and look for other people's digs, and then hunt. With the soil conditions we have in Texas, even the best hunter will leave obvious digs to the educated eye. Other than that...just hit one early-early or late-late around the tot lots and see if another detector is there. If so, hunt the danged place and plead ignorance. martin