Re: Fossil Protection Act

[Jeff Poling <jpoling@dinosauria.com>]

At 07:45 PM 5/14/96 -0400, anatomy@acl.nyit.edu wrote:

>RESOLUTION CONCERNING H.R. 2943
>THE FOSSIL PROTECTION ACT OF 1996

>Whereas, the bill proposed by Representatives Johnson and Skeen, known
>as H.R. 2943, the Fossil Protection Act of 1996, provides for the
>commercialization of public fossil resources, and
>
>Whereas, the bill does not reflect either public opinion

   How do they know this?  The one and only poll I'm aware of is the
one by the SVP which is dubious at best because

   a) it only polled 300 people which is too small a sample size to
accurately reflect the opinions of 250,000,000 people;
   b) it made no attempt to discover the level of paleontological
knowledge of the pollees.  I strongly suspect that those who know and
understand all the issues surrounding fossils, collection, the state
of the science, etc.  would give different answers than those who know
nothing; and
   c) the poll produced highly contradictory results, showing either
the poll was very poorly constructed and any results are suspect, or
the pollees really didn't understand the issues making any results
suspect.

>or a preservation philosophy,

   ....which is complete and utter BS.

>Whereas, paleontological resources provide unique scientific and
>educational opportunities in our public institutions, and

   Sweeping generalization and perhaps a bit of an overstatement.

>Whereas, paleontological resources are essentially non-renewable
>resources that are scientifically significant and contribute to the
>knowledge and understanding of our natural heritage, and
>
>Whereas, paleontological resources from public lands belong to the
>American people and no individual has the right to dispose of them
>for personal gain, and

   Non-renewable resources such as oil, gold, and others are commonly
extracted from public lands by commercial companies for profit.  These
items belong to the american people too, yet companies are permitted
to by them from the people and sell them at a profit.  If no
individual has a right to dispose of fossils for personal gain, than
neither do they have a right to dispose of oil or other resources for
personal gain.  Shut those lands down NOW!

>Whereas, public institutions have assumed the responsibility as
>stewards of our paleontological resources by preserving fossils in
>the public trust,

   ...if these public institutions had the money, facilities and
manpower to properly and fully realize this stewardship then this
passage might have more meaning.

>Therefore, be it resolved that every effort should be taken to
>protect and preserve our paleontological resources from public
>lands, and

   ...they better be prepared to empty their own pocketbooks.  This
ain't gonna happen otherwise....

>Be it further resolved that our public paleontological resources
>from public lands must be protected from the threat of private sale
>or trade, and

   Typical.  Ban the trade rather than work with those who wish to
trade.  No doubt they liked the Baucus Bill, which made picking up a
rock on federal lands a criminal offense.

>Be it further resolved that public paleontological resources should
>find proper disposition in a public museum or institution where they
>will be properly conserved, cared for, made available for scientific
>research and education, and used as a significant learning resource
>for the greater public benefit.

   Funny ... without the resources to do so, how is this going to
happen?  How many more decades will those casts sit in the basement of
BYU stadium?  How many fossils per year are destroyed by erosion?

>There you have it, folks: another indication that H.R. 2943 needs to
>be refined somewhat before it will prove acceptable to the Museum
>community.

   The "museum community", which I suspect is an overbroad
generalization, isn't going to be happy until ALL property rights are
stripped from us, both public and private (carefully read the SVP
poll).

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