NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Antiquities

The rocks and minerals of Park or Monument are part of the natural scene and even the removal of loose pebbles is regulated. Every employee should be familiar with the policies and regulations of the Service in this regard. It is within the authority of the Superintendent to grant permits to collect rocks and minerals to researchers, whether employees working on Service projects or representatives of scientific and educational institutions and organizations who will make valid use of such materials.

However, the authority to issue collecting permits for fossils is in the province of the Antiquities Act and rests with the Secretary of the Interior. As in the case of archeology, an exception is made in the case of qualified Service employees who may be authorized to perform paleontological research in the Park under direct permit of the Superintendent. Neither visitors nor Service employees who do not have permits are allowed to collect any geological materials, whether they are rocks, minerals, or fossils. In the course of your everyday duties, both are handled the same way. Whether or not you bring in the Antiquities Act in explaining the fossil collecting prohibition to the visitor is largely up to you. The Park Naturalist is the best authority in most cases; he can tell you what the local situation involves and can pass on the Superintendent's wishes in the matter.

For paleontological specimens, as in the case of archeological remains, the best preparation for the enforcement of the act is knowledge. Know where the major fossil-bearing beds are located. Learn to recognize these rocks and make sure the regulations on collecting specimens are enforced. In all cases of violations of the Antiquities Act as it relates to paleontology, follow the procedure specified in part V of this booklet. While violations will probably be less clear-cut and may be harder to recognize, they are equally bad, and there is little excuse for failing to enforce the letter and the spirit of the law.

You are probably already familiar with the problems which appear when you try to preserve the geological resources of a Park. Very few people, except for the confirmed vandal, fail to see the reason for protecting cave formations. Even though such formations are numerous, they incorporate only a limited amount of material. But these same reasonable people find it difficult to understand that specimens of the Kaibab limestone at Grand Canyon or granite from Yosemite are also protected, and that collecting to add to the trophies of a visit is as much a violation of the regulations as the removal of a more unusual specimen. The same is true in applying Antiquities Act provisions to fossils as compared to archeological remains, which are more obviously limited.

This is, of course, an opportunity to sell conservation to the visitor. Avoid lecturing or sermonizing, but explain that the Service considers no resource to be inexhaustible, and that all the things which are now a part of the natural scene are being held here not for a century, but forever. An approach along these lines should be a part of the basic contact equipment of every employee since it applies also to the collection of all natural history specimens.