Management of paleontological resources conforms to the provisions of the Paleontological Resources Protection Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-011) (PRPA).
The law does not change the BLM’s basic policy for allowing casual collecting of reasonable amounts of common invertebrate and plant fossils from public lands for personal use without a permit. Nor does the PRPA change the prohibition on bartering or selling common invertebrate and plant fossils. Section 6301(1) of the PRPA states that casual collecting must take place “either by surface collection or the use of non-powered hand tools resulting in only negligible disturbance to the Earth’s surface and other resources.”
The PRPA does not change BLM’s requirement for issuance of a paleontological resources use permit for the collection of vertebrate and other paleontological resources of interest by qualified researchers. Section 6301(4) defines a paleontological resource as “…any fossilized remains, traces, or imprints of organisms, preserved in or on the earth’s crust, that are of paleontological interest and that provide information about the history of life on earth….”
For all authorized surface disturbing activities:
Inventories will be conducted on a case-by-case basis, as deemed necessary by the authorized officer, for each proposed surface-disturbing activity to ensure maintenance or integrity of paleontological values.
User/operators shall be responsible for informing all persons associated with a project that they shall be subject to prosecution for damaging, altering, excavating, or removing any vertebrate or noteworthy occurrences of invertebrate or plant fossils on site.
If vertebrate or noteworthy occurrences of invertebrate or plant fossils are discovered, the user/operator shall suspend all operations that further disturb such materials and immediately contact the authorized officer.
User/operators shall not resume until written authorization to proceed is issued by the authorized officer.
Within five working days, the authorized officer will evaluate the discovery and inform the operator of actions that will be necessary to prevent loss of significant scientific values.
The user/operator shall be responsible for the cost of any mitigation required by the authorized officer.
Upon verification from the authorized officer that the required mitigation has been completed, the operator shall be allowed to resume operations.