Accuracy is the foundation of everything Permitted Pursuits publishes. When a material error is identified — an incorrect permit requirement, a wrong penalty figure, an outdated restriction boundary — we correct it promptly and document it here.
Minor corrections (typos, formatting, broken links) are fixed silently. Material corrections that change a factual claim are logged in this register with a description of what changed and why.
The Fakahatchee Strand page cited FL DEP Rule 62D-2.014(1)(k) as the ban on removing plants (that rule covers recreation activities and has no paragraph (k)), cited Fla. Stat. § 258.004 for the penalty, and called a § 581.185 violation a second-degree misdemeanor of up to $500 per plant that escalates on repeat offenses. The Big Cypress and Ocala pages cited a § 581.188 that does not exist and said repeat § 581.185 violations are third-degree felonies, and gave $50,000 as the Endangered Species Act civil penalty. The Osceola page listed the saw palmetto permit's cost as "Varies".
What it says now
Florida's state park plant rule is FAC 62D-2.013(4)(b) ("No person shall transplant or remove any plant life from any park"), and 62D-2.013(7) allows collection permits only for scientific or educational purposes. Collecting plant specimens in a state park without permission is a second-degree misdemeanor with ejection under Fla. Stat. § 258.008(3)(c). A § 581.185 violation is a first-degree misdemeanor under § 581.211(1), with no felony step-up for repeat offenses. The ESA's civil maximum is $25,000 per knowing violation (adjusted for inflation); $50,000 and 1 year is the criminal maximum (16 U.S.C. § 1540). The FDACS saw palmetto permit is free.
Florida foraging pages said harvesting saw palmetto berries needs a commercial FDACS dealer license that recreational foragers cannot get, and three of them said there is no personal-use exemption. The Osceola National Forest page cited the theft statute (Fla. Stat. § 812.014) and said any quantity was a felony; the Apalachicola summary also said "regardless of quantity".
What it says now
Fla. Stat. § 581.189 makes it a third-degree felony to harvest saw palmetto berries on public land, or on someone else's land, without both the landowner's written permission and a permit from FDACS. The permit (form FDACS 08025) is free, valid for one year, and is not a dealer license. The statute does not cover someone who legally harvests from up to two plants for home or personal use, but § 581.185 still requires the landowner's written permission even for one or two plants — on a national forest that is the Forest Service, in Big Cypress the National Park Service. The pages now say so and cite the statute and FDACS.
The Fort De Soto page gave a verdict of "permit required" and described a free ranger permit, a 6-inch digging limit and a rule that finds must be surrendered. None of these had a source. A separate page described the permit itself, and the St. Pete Beach, Clearwater Beach, Pensacola Beach and Siesta Key pages repeated the claims.
What it says now
Pinellas County Code § 90-7(p) bans metal detectors in county parks "except on beaches in parks", and the county's park-rules page adds only that dug holes must be filled. The verdict is now "allowed" (beaches only, no permit, fill your holes), penalties cite Fla. Stat. § 125.69, the permit page was deleted, and the claims were removed from the other four pages.
Florida pages said the state owns any object over 50 years old found anywhere on a beach, and that such finds must be reported. Some cited § 267.061 as the source of a felony penalty, and three pages named "Sovereign Submerged Lands Archaeological Preserves", a designation that does not exist.
What it says now
§ 267.061 covers objects abandoned on state-owned land and sovereignty submerged land, which on the coast generally means seaward of mean high water, not the dry sand of city and county beaches. The statute has no age threshold; "50 years" is Florida State Parks policy for what visitors may keep in state parks. § 267.13 penalizes removal without a Division of Historical Resources permit; there is no duty to report, and reporting is not a defense. Quick answers, penalty rows, prose and FAQs were corrected on the pages below, and the Chapter 267 guide was rewritten.
36 Florida pages and the Chapter 267 guide's FAQ described the penalty for removing a protected artifact as a misdemeanor punishable by up to $500.
What it says now
Under § 267.13 it is a first-degree misdemeanor if the object was removed without excavation and a third-degree felony if it was excavated; the finds are forfeited and restitution can be ordered. The penalty rows and the guide's FAQ now say so.
The page said casual collecting of common invertebrate and plant fossils was allowed in the monument, up to 25 lb per day and 250 lb per year.
What it says now
The monument has been closed to casual fossil collecting since Proclamation 6920 (1996). Proclamation 11044 (effective September 11, 2026) reduced it to about 181,541 acres in two units, which stay closed. BLM has not yet said how casual collecting will be managed on the roughly 1.69 million acres removed from the monument, so the verdict is "unclear" until it does. The related Utah and Wyoming pages were updated to match.
Rockhounding, fossil and gold-panning pages applied a single "25 lb per day, 250 lb per year" limit to all collecting on BLM land, and some cited it to 43 CFR § 3622.2 or "Part 3600".
What it says now
Three federal rules apply. Rocks, minerals and gemstones: "reasonable amounts", with no federal number (43 CFR 8365.1-5(b)(2)); BLM Arizona and BLM California set 25 lb per day and 250 lb per year, BLM Oregon/Washington uses a car-trunk standard, and BLM Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico publish no figure. Common invertebrate and plant fossils: 25 lb per person per day, with no annual cap (43 CFR 49.810). Petrified wood: 25 lb plus one piece per day, 250 lb per year (43 CFR 3622.4). The wrong citations were removed, and references to BLM's retired LR2000 database now point to MLRS.
The page treated Virgin Valley as BLM land open to collecting 25 lb per day under 43 CFR 8365.1-5.
What it says now
Virgin Valley is in Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, which allows rock collecting by hand from the surface only, up to 7 lb per day, with no digging or tools; digging happens only at private fee-dig mines. The page was rewritten from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sources, and the Royal Peacock, Rye Patch, Opal Butte and opal material pages were updated to match.
The Judith River and Badlands pages gave a fixed "$100,000" fine for fossil violations under the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act.
What it says now
The penalty rows now cite the statute itself: 16 U.S.C. 470aaa-5 (criminal penalties) and 470aaa-6 (civil penalties), with the ARPA penalty tiers of 16 U.S.C. 470ee(d) on the Judith River page.
Texas metal-detecting pages cited the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department park rule to 30 TAC, and described Antiquities Code violations as a state jail felony.
What it says now
The park rule is 31 TAC § 59.134(i), a Class C misdemeanor (up to $500, Parks and Wildlife Code § 13.112). Antiquities Code violations are a misdemeanor under Natural Resources Code § 191.171: a $50 to $1,000 fine and/or up to 30 days in jail, with each day a separate offense.
The page placed the Black Hills Rockhound Area in western Arizona under the BLM Yuma Field Office, with white opalite, geodes and jasper as the main finds.
What it says now
Rewritten from BLM's page for the site: it is in Graham County, managed by the Safford Field Office, off US-191 near milepost 141, and is known for fire agate. The geode and jasper material pages were corrected, and the site was added to the agate page.
The page said personal-use collecting on Prescott National Forest had no daily weight limit, and contrasted it with a BLM 25-lb rule it cited to 43 CFR § 3622.2.
What it says now
Prescott National Forest says a reasonable amount is generally up to 10 lb per person per day. The limit was corrected and the misapplied BLM citation removed.
