I live in Southern New Mexico. I ran about 100 sections, part of a larger
ranch for a little over 5 years( 1999 to 2004) The part I ran was almost
all
classified as Wilderness Study Area (WSA). Look up the rules for WSA. The
only time there was anyone in the area that was not there to visit me was
hunting season. The hunters drove all over off road , left their camps a
mess when they left, generally trashed the place. I begged the BLM to
come
bust somebody so I could spread the word and maybe get everyone to follow
the rules. Never once did a BLM person show up during the 5 years, except
some old volutiers and all they did was drive around and sometimes pick
up
some trash. In 2004 there was one BLM Agent ( The ones who carry guns) to
cover all of southern New Mexico. Border Patrol was a different matter.
There were more Border Patrol on the ranch daily than illegals passed
through yearly. They mostly were hunting arrowheads, shooting rabbits, or
picnicking. I collect arrowheads. I have all the laws concerning
artifacts in the binder made up for my files. ARPA laws state in is not
againt the law to pick up arrowheads on the surface. ( ARPA was passed in
1979, Jimmy Crater was the president and he was an arrowhead collector).
He
refused to sign ARPA stating that he did not some Boy Scout arrested for
picking an arrowhead up. So it was changed to exclude arrowhead hunting,
only arrowheads nothing else, and that is stated a couple places in the
law.
I had a friend in another BLM area got harassed by a BLM person, so I
decide
to check in person. There was not one person in the Las Cruces BLM office
who could tell me anything except that you could not do it. It took me
weeks
to find the Agent, and he told me a lot of different things. The one that
like was it was not against the law to pick up an arrowhead if you were
working, hiking or whatever else on BLM land and found one. Where you
were
breaking the law was if you went to the BLM land with the intent of
looking for arrowheads. I had the law with me so I pulled out a copy of
ARPA
and ask him to show me where that was stated as I had read it numerous
times
and never seen any thing written like that. He did not read anything just
stated that I was not a lawyer and probably to stupid to understand legal
writing. I studied Animal Science, Business, and Civil Engineering, so I
am
maybe not as smart as a Federal employee, but I know how to read. Someone
needs to have a lawyer friend really read the new meteorite law,
including
all the fine print, because the BLM people read the title and go from
there,
or they are trying to run you off an area so they can go back and hunt
themselves. Another story about arrowheads and ARPA. I found a copy of
the
Forest Service laws on artifacts. It stated that it was against the the
to
pick up chipped stone projectiles ( arrowheads ). I contacted the
Forest Service and questioned it. They told me that ARPA was only a
guideline for federal agencies to use to make their own regulations. I
said
so the Congress, Senate, and the President had studied, debated, and
finally
passed the law so some GS2 employee of the Forest Service could change to
to
what ever he wanted to. I have not seen the new laws but will track one
down
soon and have a judge friend of mine write an opionon and sent it to the
list. Saludos Doug
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