Waco Pit Permits

[Jeffrey P]

Today I called the Army Corps of Engineers to get a permit to collect at the Waco Pit. I was told that there is a limit on how many fossils you are allowed to keep. The limit per day is two. I thought anyone planning to collect there should know this.

[Tidgy's Dad]

3 minutes ago, Jeffrey P said:

Today I called the Army Corps of Engineers to get a permit to collect at the Waco Pit. I was told that there is a limit on how many fossils you are allowed to keep. The limit per day is two. I thought anyone planning to collect there should know this.

That sounds ridiculous to me. 

[Miocene_Mason]

45 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

That sounds ridiculous to me. 

Same in some New Jersey sites. They do it to prevent over collecting, especially by one individual. Not really my favorite policy either.

[Heteromorph]

I had seen this information before but thought I must be misunderstanding it. Sadly not. Seems quite excessive to me. 

[DPS Ammonite]

Considering the average fossil size, (lots of pyritized micromorphs) that equals about a quarter of a thimble-full.

[MeargleSchmeargl]

That is ridiculous. A more reasonable limit would be in the range of 15-20, if they had to impose one.

[sharko69]

Yes. And the rangers have started to enforce this as well. I was there a couple of weeks ago and they mentioned that they may close the site to the public if the rule is not followed. I kept two teeth. Not worth the trip for two fossils. 

[aek]

That does seem excessively strict especially considering they are microfossils. I was there last Christmas and found some beautiful juvenile ammonites and a shark tooth. Here are two of my favorite finds:

Adkinsia bosquensis  

 

Submantelliceras brazoense

[erose]

On 5/13/2018 at 9:20 AM, sharko69 said:

Yes. And the rangers have started to enforce this as well. I was there a couple of weeks ago and they mentioned that they may close the site to the public if the rule is not followed. I kept two teeth. Not worth the trip for two fossils. 

 

 

Did rangers come into the pit and ask to see what you had?

 

Our club is scheduled to go soon and we are not even sure if the limit refers to each person or our entire group. 

[RyanNREMTP]

I can confirm this as well. They are looking at closing the site since they found a website that showed people collecting more than the two fossils.  We also recently found out that the rule applies to a group as well.  The whole group can only collect two fossils in total.  So it would be better for each person to have their own permit.

[RyanNREMTP]

Just now, erose said:

Did rangers come into the pit and ask to see what you had?

 

Our club is scheduled to go soon and we are not even sure if the limit refers to each person or our entire group. 

The DPS group went a couple of weeks ago and we actually had a ranger come down and examine our permit.  They did not stick around to collect our collections.

[erose]

29 minutes ago, RyanNREMTP said:

The DPS group went a couple of weeks ago and we actually had a ranger come down and examine our permit.  They did not stick around to collect our collections.

Thanks for the feedback. Our filed trip chair is all concerned about this.

[RyanNREMTP]

Sorry. In my last post I meant to say the ranger did not check our collections.

 

As for a group going it would be better for each individual to get their own permit. It will be more paperwork for the CoE to keep up with but it would be the only way to get two fossils per person.

 

I have to say that this will seriously hinder my future fossil hunting there.

[Bone guy]

Wow. Why two? That's a really weird number. It's like they felt bad about just letting you keep one.  

[erose]

42 minutes ago, RyanNREMTP said:

Sorry. In my last post I meant to say the ranger did not check our collections.

 

As for a group going it would be better for each individual to get their own permit. It will be more paperwork for the CoE to keep up with but it would be the only way to get two fossils per person.

 

I have to say that this will seriously hinder my future fossil hunting there.

It is hard to imagine how this site could ever be over-collected. Limiting the number of permits/people seems like a better idea. Then maybe set the limit at a dozen or two fossils per person. 

 

If all of our club’s members had to snag a permit it would keep some away. Especially the new members. I think like DPS our group (PSA) will have to test these new* waters. 

 

*according to our trip leader the two fossils thing had been in place for a while but now they are emphasizing it. 

 

I’ll hopefully have a good report come next week...

[RyanNREMTP]

Yes, i can attest that the 2 fossil rule has always been on the permit since at least 2014 along with not collecting invertebrate bones. It wasn't until this year that they began mentioning it more and more until now they are checking it in the field.

[FossilDAWG]

I'm fine with not collecting invertebrate bones. 

 

The 2 fossil limit is enough to cross that site off my list.  It would probably take longer to fill in the paperwork for the permit than it would take to find 2 fossils.

 

Don

[Miocene_Mason]

55 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

I'm fine with not collecting invertebrate bones. 

I don’t know, those things are rare! If you found one, that would be invertebrate fossil of the month worthy!

[RyanNREMTP]

5 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

I'm fine with not collecting invertebrate bones. 

 

The 2 fossil limit is enough to cross that site off my list.  It would probably take longer to fill in the paperwork for the permit than it would take to find 2 fossils.

 

Don

You can definitely find two fossils in 30 seconds of getting down into the pit.  I don't have an issue of going every now and then and hunting for an hour then picking which two I want to keep.  I've hunted there for four years and I've pretty much collected at least one of everything I could want out there.