From Stephen Moreton
Warrington, Cheshire
The report on attempts to rationalise legislation on fossil collecting in
the US highlights problems faced by fossil (and mineral) collectors in many
countries (This Week, 16 March, p 10). Opponents of collecting, usually either
ivory-towered academics or officious government or other bodies, seem oblivious
to the loss being caused all the time to our geological heritage by quarrying,
mining or construction work or by natural erosion. “Leave alone” policies may
work well for rare orchids or peregrine falcons but can be wholly inappropriate
for geological material. Fossils and minerals soon disintegrate once exposed and
there are just too few professionals with too little time (and funding) to
rescue them before they are destroyed.
Amateurs are continually making, and reporting, discoveries that would
otherwise have been missed or lost for all time. Many museum curators know the
benefits of having an army of often knowledgeable collectors and maintain good
relations with them—to everyone’s benefit. This applies equally well to
commercial collectors, many of whose finds grace our museums and whose
activities attract newcomers to the earth sciences. How many palaeontologists,
mineralogists and geologists first had their interest aroused as children thanks
to a trilobite or crystal purchased for a few pounds?
The enemies of collecting are strong, however. In Britain sections of Cornish
coastline are coming under the control of the National Trust, which will not
allow hammers. Sites are needlessly being labelled SSSIs so that whatever
material they may contain is now being left to the weather rather than being
taken safely indoors. Old mines are being sealed and their waste tips cleared,
access to quarries banned and so on. Before long the anti-collecting brigade
will have won—thanks to them there will be nothing left to collect.
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