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October 7, 2008

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Monmouth County...

Monmouth County Proposed Fossil Regs

8/5/2006 1:01:28 AM

xiphodan

18 posts

Monmouth County Proposed Fossil Regs

This an article fron the Asbury Park Press about proposed regulations that will impact those of us that collect in NJ - Any thoughts?
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060730/NEWS01/607300369/1004/rss01

8/6/2006 4:41:27 PM

legacyForum

725 posts

RE: Monmouth County Proposed Fossil Regs

Happy to see the former Jersey resident who has moved to greener fossil pastures is still looking out for the interests of the remaining Jersey fossil hunters. This is certainly a negative turn for one of the last remaining open fossil streams in the state. I will try and get the word out to fellow fossil enthusiasts. Thanks Xiphodan.

8/8/2006 12:45:45 PM

ditchweezil

328 posts

RE: Monmouth County Proposed Fossil Regs

Where do you think they got the "5 fossils per day" figure?

8/9/2006 3:32:12 AM

legacyForum

725 posts

RE: Monmouth County Proposed Fossil Regs

there is another well-known fossil stream nearby that has had that ridiculous limit posted for years. of course we all obey it and leave after 1 screen load of collecting...

8/9/2006 4:18:36 AM

xiphodan

18 posts

RE: Monmouth County Proposed Fossil Regs

There doesn’t appear to be much scientific reasoning behind what the Environmental Commission is proposing. Go to any stream or river in New Jersey and you will see trees that have fallen due to erosion. Does this mean that fossil hunters are to blame? - It probably would if these streams and rivers had fossils in them, but the simple truth is that streams in central NJ flow through flood plains and their path through these plains change all the time. Couple that with the fact that the flow through these streams has substantially increased due to run-off from encroaching developments and its easy to see how fossil hunters could turn into an easy target. That’s not to say I’m against certain regulations being posted - Fossiling during daylight hours and staying within the confines of the streambed are generally pretty well adhered to, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt posting them. I know there have been issues of “digs” being done at Big Brook where serious damage was done and last year I myself listened to a gentleman in the parking lot at Aurora tell me how his college professor friend in NJ took his class to Big Brook and had them remove 2 feet of overburden to get down to the layer.
The fossil limit, I assume, is being modeled after Big Brook. I’m not against a fossil limit, but 5 is just too few. I think most collectors go through the phase of hoarding anything that resembles a fossil during their first ever 10 or so trips. But once that phase passes, a good trip is usually defined by three or four good finds along with one or two really good finds. Imagine though that a day comes where you hit that pocket of great material, and in 30 minutes of collecting you have 5 finds that you would never throw back into the stream - would you stop collecting? Of course not because you have found one of those spots that come along once every year if your lucky. If 5 great finds came out of it, there’s bound to be more and I myself would be driven to see what else that spot would produce. I know that people regularly disregard the fossil limit at Big Brook judging by pictures that sometimes get sent to me and I personally don’t blame them. Make a reasonable limit and it there will be a better chance of people adhering to it. I think 15 would be a good number but a limit of 10 would probably not cut my day short
As for the regulation dictating a 144 square inch maximum screen size I guess we the fossiling community have been on double secret probation. The article states, “ The proposal for regulations on fossil hunting came from the Environmental Commission after members observed visitors using screens much larger than the proposed 144-square-inch maximum, Lemma said.”
Say What? I guess there must have been a secret meeting where a secret maximum size was decided upon followed by a secret trip to see if everyone was following the secret regulations. The bottom line is that if you use a large screen yes you can load it with more material, but your also going to take two to three times longer washing and scanning it. I generally use a 16 square inch screen. If it was mandated that I could only use a 12 square inch screen, I could almost guarantee that the amount of material I go through on a trip would not change by much.
The regulation other than the fossil limit that would have a large impact, is the “trowel” regulation. I don’t know about anyone else, but using a “trowel” with a 6 inch maximum blade width doesn’t sound like much fun. But I guess that the aim here is to take some of the enjoyment out of this activity for some reason decided upon in some secret meeting by people who really have no interest in fossiling - or at least that’s my impression. I hope the Commission can give a better reason than “visitors using screens larger than the proposed 144- square-inch maximum...”. If anyone hears of some more logical reasoning please let us all know. Monmouth County has been fairly friendly towards fossiling, but it only takes one or two individuals to change that. I never collected upstream of Boundary Road at Big Brook, but I heard it was great. One land owner was all it took to shut that stretch down - lets hope we don’t lose anymore.

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