I just got a call from a gentleman at the South Florida Water Management District and I wanted to share the results. According to the information he gave me, the district does not have any rules regarding or prohibiting detecting on their land as long as you do not remove any natural resources, BUT (and it is kind of a big one) a lot of the districts property is actually managed by other agencies (primarily the Fish and Wildlife Commission) who may have more rules that apply, so you need to check first.
ADDITIONALLY, I came across this in the state statutes (
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http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0200-0299/0267/Sections/0267.13.html
) which states:
"Any person who by means of excavation either conducts archaeological field investigations on, or removes or attempts to remove, or defaces, destroys, or otherwise alters any archaeological site or specimen located upon, any land owned or controlled by the state or within the boundaries of a designated state archaeological landmark or landmark zone, except in the course of activities pursued under the authority of a permit or under procedures relating to accredited institutions granted by the division, commits a felony of the third degree"
AND
"The division may institute an administrative proceeding to impose an administrative fine of not more than $500 a day on any person or business organization that, without written permission of the division, explores for, salvages, or excavates treasure trove, artifacts, sunken or abandoned ships, or other objects having historical or archaeological value located on state-owned or state-controlled lands, including state sovereignty submerged lands"
While I am not a lawyer (nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) it would seem based on my lay reading of the law and how the courts would define an "archaeological field investigation", "archaeological specimen", and/or "historical or archaeological value" one could potentially get in a deal of trouble just using a detector while carrying a digging implement on state land (at least from looking at this specific statute - others may interact in ways that negate or enhance the risk) regardless of whether or not your intent was just to look for modern leavings if the state wanted to push the issue and claim you were conducting a "archaeological field investigation". (Though, I may just be over-thinking things, but I tend to be overly cautious when it comes to possibly pissing off the gov't)
Since I don't want to be a test case, I think I am going to look elsewhere for interesting places to detect that are privately owned (the local governments pretty much make detecting in their parks a no-no - though I would be more than happy to pay for a permit if they offered one, but that is a whole other
).
Coincidentally, considering the above statute it makes me wonder where the allowance for detecting on the beach, which is state land, and getting to keep your older finds (i.e. Spanish gold/silver coins) comes from. I know I have read online that is the case, but never from anywhere official or with links to any official info. Does anyone know what statutes, case law, etc. allows this? (I know with the number of people detecting on Florida's beaches any issues would have come to light by now, it is just my overly inquisitive nature that compels me to ask why.)
I now realize how long winded this "quick" post has gotten so I'll stop now before it gets any worse.
John
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