Subject: Re: Bad news from Maryland

From: [email-masked] (Pierre A Plauzoles)
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 00:10:05 GMT

In a previous article, [email-masked] (KENELM W PHILIP) says:

>        I have just received the following message from a friend on the
>East Coast. The content is from the Maryland Entomological Society Newsletter,
>Vol. 15, No. 5, April 1995.  [....]  I regard this as an exceedingly 
>serious threat to collecting, and to entomological research in general. I 
>realize there may be members of this list who disagree...
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Invertebrate Collecting Guidelines in MD
>
>"The following guidelines and procedures for acquiring permits were
>recommended [...] for general collecting of invertebrates in MD.  
Separate regulations in addition to those given below apply to species 
listed as Threatened, [....].
>  i) Written permission from the landowner is necessary for collection on
>private property.
>  ii) A letter of authorization (see note below) is necessary for collection
>on State Park or State Forest land.  Contact Rusty Ruszen (410-974-3771)
>Public Lands, E-3 Tawes Building, Annapolis, MD 21401.
>  iii) For authorization (see note below) to collect on state Wildlife
>Management Areas, contact Mary Jo Scanlon (410-974-3195) Permits Coordinator,
>Wildlife Division, E-1 Tawes Building, Annapolis, MD 21401.
>  iv) A permit or authorization is needed to collect on National Park service
>and other public lands.

In California, permits are already required in a number of the situations 
you mention.  Whether justified or not, the rationale is varies.  With 
the NPS, no collecting is allowed except as part of a research project 
(for which permits are required); the State Park System has a similar 
policy.  Private land is another story.  I would think the owner would 
want to be exempt from some bozo's lawsuit stemming from careless 
behavior on his property (what better way to prevent it that to have the 
collector sign a form limiting his rights to sue?).  On the other hand, 
there should be some limits to the amount of effort required to procure 
said permit, too!!

>        When children get interested in entomology, they usually collect in
>vacant lots--many of which have absentee landowners, some of them out of
>the state. The idea of some kid having to go to the county offices and
>track down a landowner in California to get permission to catch insects in
>a vacant lot in Maryland is ludicrous (or would be if it were not also sad).
>We do not need this level of bureaucratic control over the minutiae of daily
>life!

Like I said, there should be some limits ....

>        I am begining to think it's time the National Academy of Sciences got
>involved in this issue--maybe _they_ have enough prestige that people would
>listen to them.

I agree.  Maybe F&WS will listen to them (?).

-- 
Pierre Plauzoles   [email-masked]
Canoga Park, California