To get back to the subject of land in the American West, if we wait for centuries or even a few decades before scientifically hunting an area, we lose meteorites because of urban development. That isn't happening in NWA for the most part, but it is here. Look at Gold Basin. There is a lot of remaining material, but soon it will be a settlement which will obliterate and destroy much of the remaining stones. And that is happening all over the West. Not to mention surfaces that are being destroyed by natural processes (every year rivers and washes like the Santa Cruz in Southern Az change channels and wash away thousands if not millions of cubic yards of land). I agree 100% that hunters should collect data for each and every find made, but we shouldn't restrict meteorite hunting because of a few bad collectors. What will happen is that good hunters will stop hunting and unscrupulous hunters will continue. Since they aren't enforcing basic laws on public lands, only those with a conscience and a good reputation will comply and stop.
Why not create a system which encourages good hunting techniques? I think if we have such a system, a new person who stumbles into the hobby would pick up good habits from the start. If people realize that if they donate a certain percentage of a new find, that they could become published and acknowledged, they would choose to do that. If they know recording the data that scientist want, they would do it to help out. It is a source of pride to feel that you are helping in a greater cause. But if it's a choice of criminalizing meteorite hunting (for varied reasons - to stop data loss or "protect the land"), or leaving it the way it currently is, then I hope no changes are made. The past demonstrates (though Martin's good analysis) that the former will only harm the field of meteoritics. Regarding regulations, anything more complicated than selling a meteorite license (for a nominal fee, with the expectation that a certain percentage of finds will be donated to list of institutions) will be unenforceable and unmanageable (and too expensive). At some point you have to trust people to do the right thing and let their peers determine if they are worth doing business with. If an agent catches someone without a license (like the state and feds already catch poachers, dumpers, ATVers in Wilderness areas, etc.), then an appropriate fine is applied (with maybe a written warning for the first incident to allow folks to become educated with the system). Anything more complicated won't work and a good alternative is to leave it as it is as half a loaf is better than a hundred paved over loaves. Mark B. Vail, AZ ----- Original Message ---- From: Jason Utas [email protected] Most NWA's are very old; they would not suffer if they were left there for even centuries. If we left them until the time when we could go there and properly document them, they would not suffer. You say that it is worth it to pick them up *now* so that we get the extraterrestrial data and lose the terrestrial data. I think that it would be better to wait the extra few decades so that we might get both sets of data. You have yet to explain why you think that it is worth it to pick them up now as opposed to later in exchange for the loss of all terrestrial/entry data. ______________________________________________ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
