Editorial Guides

36 CFR § 2.1 Explained: Why National Park Land Bans Collecting

One federal regulation is cited more than any other statute on this site — across metal detecting, beachcombing, fossil hunting, and rockhounding alike. It actually contains two separate bans, not one, and knowing the difference is the reason a metal detector broken down in a backpack is legal to carry across the same ground where using it would be a federal offense.

Verified 2026-08-20

BLM Personal-Use Collecting Rules: Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils

Most BLM land allows collecting rocks, minerals and common invertebrate fossils for personal use, with no permit. Federal law sets no weight limit for rocks: just 'reasonable amounts'. The 25-pound figure is the federal limit for fossils and petrified wood, and some BLM state offices apply it to rocks too. Vertebrate fossils need a permit.

Verified 2026-09-25

Florida's Antiquities Law (Chapter 267) Explained for Metal Detectorists

Florida Statutes Chapter 267 gives the state title to historic artifacts abandoned on state-owned land and sovereignty submerged land, and makes removing them without a permit a crime. Here's where that line falls on a beach, where the "50-year rule" actually comes from, and what to do if you find something old.

Verified 2026-09-28

The Texas Antiquities Code: What Metal Detectorists and Fossil Hunters Need to Know

Texas Natural Resources Code ch. 191 makes pre-1900 shipwrecks, "treasure imbedded in the earth" and archeological sites on state, county and city land the property of the State of Texas. Here is what it covers, what it doesn't (modern losses, fossils, private land), and what to do if you dig something old.

Verified 2026-09-28

The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA), Explained

Every fossil-hunting site on this site traces back to the same 2009 federal law — the one that draws the line between a shell you can legally pocket and a bone fragment that's a federal crime to remove, based on nothing but which kind of animal it came from.

Verified 2026-08-20

USFS Personal-Use Foraging Rules: What You Can Pick in National Forests

The US Forest Service manages 193 million acres of national forest land, and personal-use foraging of mushrooms, berries, nuts, and greens is allowed on most of it without a permit. The framework comes from 36 CFR § 261.10(a), but each forest sets its own quantity thresholds — and there are real exceptions that catch foragers off guard, from wilderness area bans to the Florida saw palmetto felony that applies even on federal land.

Verified 2026-05-06