Re: Bad Meteorite Laws

Michael Blood's post jogged my feeble memory. About a year or two ago, Congress was seriously considering legislation to outlaw all rock, mineral and fossil collecting on federal lands with the exception of research scientists at universities and museum. "Rocks and minerals" is broad enough to encompass meteorites. The legislation was being pushed by the Paleontological Society, but had plenty of support within academia and among museum curators. This used to be a hot topic on the Rocks & Fossil discusison list, which I droped some time ago because meteorites are my first love. If anyone on the list still subscribes to the Rocks & Fossils list, an update on this issue would be useful. In my view, science is best advanced when professional scientists, amateur scientists, collectors, meteorite hunters, and rockhounds work together -- which happens more often than many in academia want to admit. Most specimens found by amateurs would be lost to erosion before being found by professional scientists. Professional scientists do not have the funding and the time to hunt every where -- other than Antarctica (which is a little like shooting fish in a barrel, while admitting that it is a cold and desolate place to go meteorite hunting).