The rockhound's code of ethics, and what good field etiquette looks like

Good field etiquette comes down to a short written code that clubs have used for decades: get permission, know the rules for the ground you are on, leave gates as you found them, fill your holes, carry out your trash and anyone else's, follow the trip leader, and take home only what you can use. The version printed below is the one credited to the Washington State Mineral Council [1]. Clubs expect members to follow a code like it on field trips, and landowners who let clubs onto their ground remember the ones who did not. This page sets out the code point by point and then the habits it implies on a real dig.

The code as published

The Washington State Mineral Council's Rockhound's Code of Ethics, as reproduced by GeoNord (no date or version number shown on the copy read in October 2026), opens with a pledge to respect private and public property and not to collect on private land without the owner's permission [1]. Its fifteen points, summarized:

1. Learn and obey the laws and rules that apply to collecting where you are.
2. Find out where the property boundaries are before you collect.
3. Use no firearms or blasting materials in collecting areas.
4. Do not damage fences, signs, buildings or other property.
5. Leave gates as you found them.
6. Build fires only in designated or safe places, and put them out completely.
7. Do not throw away burning matches, cigarettes or other burning material.
8. Fill excavation holes that could endanger livestock.
9. Do not contaminate wells, creeks or other water.
10. "I will cause no damage to collecting material and will take home only what I can reasonably use." [1]
11. Support the H.E.L.P. (Help Eliminate Litter Please) program and leave collecting areas free of litter.
12. Cooperate with field trip leaders and others in authority at the site.
13. Report deposits of petrified wood or other protected material on public land to your club, federation, the Bureau of Land Management or another proper authority.
14. Appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources.
15. Observe the Golden Rule, use good outdoor manners, and behave in a way that improves the public image of rockhounds.

Clubs build this into how they run trips. The Rochester Academy of Science Mineral Section, a member of the Eastern Federation of Mineralogical and Lapidary Societies and through it the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies, gives its field trip committee responsibility tied to "the code of collecting ethics" in its bylaws [2]. If you join a club, ask for its own printed version; wording varies from club to club, and the club's copy is the one its trip leaders hold you to.

Where the code ends and the land rules begin

Nothing in the code gives you a right to collect anywhere. Point 1 sends you to the rules, and the rules come from whoever manages the ground. On BLM land, for example, the regulation allows "reasonable amounts" of rocks and mineral specimens to be collected for noncommercial purposes [3], while national parks generally allow no collecting at all. Where you are allowed to collect sets out each land manager side by side. Where the code and the rule differ, the rule wins.

What the code looks like on a dig

Before you go: boundaries and permission

Points 1 and 2 are where most trouble starts. A fence line in open country does not tell you whose land is on either side, and a mining claim can sit on public land with no fence at all. Check land status before the trip, and on private land, carry written permission that says what you may take and whether you may sell it. Collecting on private land covers the letter.

Gates, fences and livestock

Leave every gate as you found it, open or shut (point 5). An open gate on a ranch may be open because cattle need to reach water; closing it can be as harmful as leaving a closed one open. Never climb a fence where a gate is close by, and never cut or drop a wire. Point 8 is about your holes: a cow or a horse that steps into a knee-deep pit in the dark can break a leg. Fill every hole you dig, put the topsoil back on top, and throw back the rocks you moved.

Litter, fire and water

Carry a trash bag and fill it with yours and whatever else you find (point 11). In fire season, check whether the land manager has fire restrictions before you light a stove or a campfire, and never strike rock with steel in dry grass without watching for sparks. Do not wash specimens or tools in a stock tank, spring or well (point 9).

Taking only what you can use

Point 10 is the one collectors argue about. "What I can reasonably use" is a judgment, and the honest test is whether you have a place in your collection, your trade box or your club's swap table for each piece you carry out. High-grading a site, taking every good crystal from a fresh pocket to sort later, leaves the next visitor nothing and draws the kind of attention that gets sites closed. If you collect to sell, you need the right permission first; the general BLM allowance is for noncommercial collecting only [3]. Collecting at the site covers how much to take in practice.

Leaving fragile localities alone

Some places should be looked at and photographed but not dug: a thin vein exposed in a road cut, a small outcrop that is the only known occurrence of a species in a county, a crystal pocket in the wall of a historic mine. Damaging collecting material is point 10's first clause. Take a single piece or none, and record it well. Point 13 asks you to report petrified wood and other protected material on public land rather than strip it; the rules for petrified wood are on petrified wood on public land.

Sharing sites

Collectors pass sites along through clubs and friends, and point 15 is the reason a good site stays open. Ask before you post exact coordinates online. A site published with a pin on a map can be stripped in a season or closed by an owner who suddenly has strangers on the property. Many collectors give a precise locality on their own records and a general one on a public label; how precise a locality should be explains the trade-off.

On a club trip

Point 12 means the trip leader decides where you dig, which tools are allowed and when the group leaves. Clubs get onto claims and private ground because the owner trusts the club to keep its members in line. Sign the waiver, stay inside the area you are shown, and if you find something the owner should know about, such as a damaged fence or a vehicle that should not be there, tell the leader.

Where to find a club that runs trips this way

The surest way to learn field etiquette is to collect with people who have practiced it for years. Clubs, federations and societies explains how clubs, regional federations and the national federation fit together, and how to get on a club field trip.

References

1. Washington State Mineral Council, *Rockhound's Code of Ethics*, as reproduced by GeoNord (no date or version shown; read October 2026). https://geonord.org/ethics/rockhound.shtml
2. Rochester Academy of Science, Mineral Section, *Bylaws* (amended June 12, 2012; read October 2026). https://rasny.org/mineral-bylaws
3. Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, 43 CFR 8365.1-5, *Property and resources* (read October 2026). https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/43/8365.1-5