A
Anonymous
Guest
Michigan recently revised its regulations on metal detecting on state owned lands. There are a great many issues with the new policy that need to be addressed.
TALKING POINTS
It was implied to several people that when the policy-making session would take place, we would be informed so the detecting community could be represented. Well, that meeting took place and nobody was informed. As a result, the detectorists side of the issue was simply ignored. As far as we know, the new regulations were railroaded through without any input from the public.
Did you know that information about archaeological sites is protected from the "Freedom of Information Act.
In the old policy, written in 1980, it read, "The use of metal detectors shall be allowed on state-owned lands administered by the department except...." and it went on to list places like historic sites, etc. The new policy reads "The use of metal detectors shall not be permitted with the exception"....and goes on to list, "places improved for public access, such as campgrounds, beaches, picnic areas." This smells very much like the famous "Closed Unless Posted Open" policy that the federal government loves so much. What it actually does is to restrict the area open to detecting to almost nothing. Look at it at this way. . . . .Think of the top surface of a large family dinner table as representing the total amount of Michigan tax-payer owned land. With the old policy, this large tabletop represented almost the entire area where you could hunt with a metal detector. Now, let
TALKING POINTS
It was implied to several people that when the policy-making session would take place, we would be informed so the detecting community could be represented. Well, that meeting took place and nobody was informed. As a result, the detectorists side of the issue was simply ignored. As far as we know, the new regulations were railroaded through without any input from the public.
Did you know that information about archaeological sites is protected from the "Freedom of Information Act.
In the old policy, written in 1980, it read, "The use of metal detectors shall be allowed on state-owned lands administered by the department except...." and it went on to list places like historic sites, etc. The new policy reads "The use of metal detectors shall not be permitted with the exception"....and goes on to list, "places improved for public access, such as campgrounds, beaches, picnic areas." This smells very much like the famous "Closed Unless Posted Open" policy that the federal government loves so much. What it actually does is to restrict the area open to detecting to almost nothing. Look at it at this way. . . . .Think of the top surface of a large family dinner table as representing the total amount of Michigan tax-payer owned land. With the old policy, this large tabletop represented almost the entire area where you could hunt with a metal detector. Now, let