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Here are two links to posts dealing with how to post pictures on Black River Fossils forums.

1. How to Post Pictures on Black River Fossils Forums by ditchweezil

2. How to Post Pictures on Black River Fossils Forums by Daryl

  

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 A Word of Caution
 
 12/14/2007 1:18:01 PM
User is offlinebeachbum
10 posts


A Word of Caution

 

Last Friday I took the day off from work to drive up to Summerville from Atlanta.After arriving at one of the spots located on the BRF map,I took my usual walk around to see where I'll start my hunting.Much to my surprise along the bank of the creek there was a pretty big hole,about 3' round and about 4.5'deep.At that point I should have left and headed over to another spot that I hunt,but you know how it is after a long drive.After about 30 minutes of sifting in the creek,I was joined by a Summerville County employee. After a friendly chat,he told me that the county is going to be watching the creek areas much closer.They want to catch the person(s) responsable for digging and leaving the holes in the creek banks.So just a word of caution.If you do dig a hole,fill it back in when your done.It would be a shame to lose a good hunting area.

 Beachbum

 

 12/14/2007 4:45:20 PM
User is offlineditchweezil
347 posts
3rd




Re: A Word of Caution
 Modified By ditchweezil  on 12/14/2007 10:47:18 AM)

Thanks for the word of caution, Beachbum. Its really sad. Some people don't think about the impact their actions have on others.

I used to have more than one location on the location page. The other spot was one I hunted for years and no one ever said a word to me. Even when the police came to see what I was doing, they just left me alone when they were sure I wasn't burying a body and they didn't see a big mess. As time went on and this site starting getting popular the word got out and more people started showing up. Then one day I noticed huge holes from the road and I immediately took the location down.

I don't want to take the other spot down, but what else can I do? If this kind of thing doesn't stop, fossil hunting around here will become illegal! I will protect fossil hunting around here at all costs, and if it means never telling another soul about a place to hunt, so be it. I know its not everyone doing this, and its probably the same person or group of people, but BlackRiverFossils.org cannot be affiliated with any kind of negligent behavior.

I hope they catch whoever is digging the holes. If I see someone doing it, I'm not going to tell them to stop. I'm just calling the police. I encourage everyone else to do the same. Either we police ourselves, or the government will do it for us.

 12/14/2007 7:45:43 PM
User is offlineTom
54 posts


Re: A Word of Caution
It's the same old story- a handful of idiots are going to ruin it for everyone else. As a relatively new collector, It took a while for me to understand why so many collectors keep their favorite sites secret, but I sure understand now. It's not the fear of someone finding "your" tooth, its someone forcing the closure of the site completely! I do most of my collecting at the Brownie Beach section of the Calvert Cliffs, and I've seen some incredibly stupid things done there. A few months ago, there was a guy standing on top of an old fall, right at the cliff wall, using a long tree branch to try to knock down a large chunk of material that looked like it could fall at any time. If he had been successful, the material would have landed right on him! I'm sure that a fatality is all the reason needed to take this site away from us too.

Who knows, maybe instead of outlawing collecting, the various states might consider issuing licenses to collect in certain areas, similar to fishing or hunting licenses? I hope it never comes to that, but it's a better solution that an outright ban.
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