Can I keep a fossil I find on public land?
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Sometimes, and only if it is the right kind of fossil on the right kind of land. On most Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land and all national forest land that is open to it, you may keep a reasonable amount of common invertebrate and plant fossils (shells, trilobites, leaf impressions) for your own collection, dug with hand tools and never sold [3][8]. You may not collect any fossil casually in a national park or a national wildlife refuge [1], and vertebrate fossils (bones, teeth, tracks) need a research permit everywhere on federal land [7]. This page sets out each rule, the amounts, and the penalties, so you can decide before you bend down.
The answer by land manager
Federal fossil law changed on September 1, 2022, when the Interior Department's rule under the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA) took effect as 43 CFR Part 49 [6]. The Forest Service has its own PRPA rule at 36 CFR Part 291 [8]. Read the row for the ground you are standing on.
| Land manager | Common invertebrate and plant fossils | Vertebrate fossils, and rare or uncommon fossils | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bureau of Land Management | Casual collecting allowed, except on land closed to it by this rule, another statute, a proclamation or a land use plan | Permit only, issued to qualified researchers | 43 CFR 49.805(a) [2]; BLM 2021 [7] |
| Bureau of Reclamation | Allowed only where Reclamation has set up a special use area for it; prohibited on Reclamation project land run by NPS or FWS | Permit only | 43 CFR 49.805(b) [2] |
| National Park Service | Not allowed; any collecting needs a permit | Permit only | 43 CFR 49.800 [1] |
| Fish and Wildlife Service (refuges) | Not allowed; any collecting needs a permit | Permit only | 43 CFR 49.800 [1] |
| Forest Service | Allowed unless the area is closed; not allowed in national monuments within the National Forest System | Not covered by the casual allowance | 36 CFR 291.11, 291.12 [8]; FS-1091 [9] |
| State, county, tribal or private land | Federal fossil law does not set the rule; the owner or the state does | Same | See the state and private land section below |
Two things trip people up. First, a BLM-managed national monument or national conservation area can be closed to fossil collecting even though the agency is the same as the open desert next to it; the closure comes from the monument's proclamation or plan, which 49.805(a) honors [2]. Second, the regulation puts the burden on you: collectors are "responsible for learning which bureau manages the land where they would like to collect" [2]. If you are not sure whose ground it is, finding out who manages a parcel walks through the maps and offices.
What "casual collecting" allows on BLM and Reclamation land
The Interior rule defines casual collecting in one sentence and then defines each of its terms [3]. Taken apart, it gives you five tests. All five must be true.
- Common invertebrate or plant fossils only. Brachiopods, clams, snails, crinoid stems, trilobites, ammonites and plant fossils are the usual examples. The land manager, working with paleontologists, decides which non-vertebrate fossils are "scientifically rare or unique and are therefore not common" [3]. BLM's working assumption is that a non-vertebrate fossil is common "unless or until" it is found not to be [11]. If a site is posted as holding uncommon material, the allowance does not apply there.
- A reasonable amount. The rule sets "a maximum of 25 pounds of common non-vertebrate paleontological resources per day per person" [3]. Where a fossil is embedded in rock, you may take a slab or cobble heavier than 25 pounds with non-motorized hand tools "in order to preserve the integrity of the embedded specimen" [3]. A local office may set a lower weight, a depth limit, dates or locations for an area [3].
- Surface collection or non-powered hand tools. Hand tools here means tools with no motor, engine or other mechanized power source that one person can carry [3]. A rock hammer, chisel, trowel and small pry bar fit. A rotary hammer or a gas-powered saw does not.
- Negligible disturbance. The rule defines it as "little or no change to the surface of the land and minimal or no effect to natural and other resources" [3]. Digging a trench or leaving a pit is outside the allowance. Fill any hole you make.
- Non-commercial personal use. Defined as "a use other than for purchase, sale, financial gain, or research" [3]. BLM's public leaflet says it plainly: common invertebrate fossils are for personal use, "and the fossils may not be bartered or sold" [7].
Anything collected outside those five tests is a prohibited act "and may result in civil or criminal penalties" [3]. The 25-pound daily figure is the fossil limit only. It is separate from the petrified wood rule, which is covered on its own page, and from the BLM rule for rocks and minerals, which sets no pound limit (see collecting on BLM land).
Petrified wood falls under the mineral rules
Petrified wood is a fossil to a paleontologist, but on BLM and Reclamation land the Interior rule treats it as "a mineral material" and leaves it out of Part 49; it falls under the free-use rules at 43 CFR Part 3620 instead [6]. Its daily and yearly limits and its no-sale condition are on petrified wood on public land. The Forest Service handles hobby petrified wood under 36 CFR 228.62(e), and those specimens "cannot be bartered or sold" [9].
National forests: a similar allowance with a yearly cap
The Forest Service rule defines casual collecting in nearly the same words as Interior's: a reasonable amount of common invertebrate and plant fossils, for non-commercial personal use, by surface collection or non-powered hand tools [8]. Three details differ.
- A yearly cap. The Forest Service defines a reasonable amount as "a maximum per calendar year of one-hundred pounds by weight, not to exceed twenty-five pounds per day" [8].
- Smaller tools. Non-powered hand tools are "small tools," and the definition excludes large tools such as full-sized shovels and pick axes [8].
- Monuments closed. Casual collecting is not allowed in "National Monuments within the National Forest System," or on other land closed by rule, statute, order or plan [8].
What you collect on a national forest "cannot be sold" (36 CFR 291.11(g)), and selling it violates the Act and the Forest Service rule and can bring civil and criminal penalties [8]. Even a research permit there may be issued only if the fossils "will not be sold or otherwise used for commercial purposes" (291.13(a)(5)) [8]. The Forest Service's own rockhounding leaflet, FS-1091 (June 2017), points readers to 36 CFR 291 for fossils [9]. Ranger districts can close areas, so ask the district office before a trip to a known fossil site.
Bones, teeth, tracks and rare fossils need a permit
Vertebrate fossils (any bone, tooth, scale or track of an animal with a backbone, including shark teeth and fish) are not covered by any casual allowance on federal land. On BLM land, "only researchers operating under a BLM permit are allowed to collect vertebrate fossils such as dinosaurs, as well as uncommon invertebrate or plant fossils" [7]. On NPS and FWS land every fossil, common or not, requires a permit under subpart B of Part 49 [1]. These permits go to qualified researchers working with a museum or university repository; a hobbyist cannot get one to build a personal collection.
If you find a bone or a track, the useful thing to do is leave it, photograph it with something for scale, record the location with your phone's GPS, and report it to the land manager's office. The paleontologist there may want to know, and a reported find can be studied and curated instead of lost.
State, tribal and private land
PRPA and its rules govern fossils on federal land [10]. Other ground has other owners.
- Private land. Fossils belong to the landowner. You need the owner's permission, and if you might ever sell or trade what you find, get that permission in writing and say so in the letter (see collecting on private land). Where the mineral rights have been severed from the surface, ask the owner which estate the fossils go with before you dig.
- State land. State trust land, state parks and state beaches follow state law, and many state parks forbid removing any natural object. The state-by-state rules, each with its agency and date, are on collecting on state land in all fifty states.
- Tribal land. Ask the tribe. Collecting on a reservation without the tribe's permission is trespass.
Penalties
The penalties for collecting outside the rules are set by statute and are larger than most collectors expect.
| Type | What the rule says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Criminal, value over $500 | Fines under federal criminal statutes and "imprisonment of up to 5 years" when the scientific and commercial value plus the cost of response, restoration and repair is more than $500 | 43 CFR 49.400 [5] |
| Criminal, value $500 or less | Fines and "imprisonment of up to 2 years" | 43 CFR 49.400 [5]; 36 CFR 291.34 [8] |
| Repeat offense | Penalties may be doubled for a second or later violation | 43 CFR 49.400 [5]; PRPA sec. 6306(d) [10] |
| Civil | Up to double the cost of response, restoration and repair plus double the scientific or fair market value of what was damaged or not recovered | PRPA sec. 6307 [10]; 36 CFR 291.29 [8] |
| Trafficking and false labels | Selling, buying, exchanging or transporting a fossil you "knew or should have known" came off federal land unlawfully, and making a "false record, account, or label" for one, are prohibited acts | 43 CFR 49.300 [4] |
The value used to set a penalty includes the specimen's scientific value, not only what it would fetch, so a fossil worth little at a show can still count as a serious violation.
A short field routine
- Before you go, confirm which agency manages the site and whether that unit is closed to fossil collecting. Call the field office or ranger district.
- Take only common invertebrate and plant material, and stay under the day's weight.
- Use hand tools you can carry, and backfill every hole.
- Leave bones, teeth and tracks where they are. Photograph, record and report them.
- Label each piece the same day with the place, the date and the land manager. A fossil with a written locality and land status is worth more to you and to anyone who inherits it, and it is your record that it came off open ground.
Before you sell, trade or give away a fossil
Everything collected casually on BLM, Reclamation or national forest land is for your own collection and stays that way. If you are thinking about selling fossils, including ones you bought or collected on private land, the rules and the records that make a sale lawful are on can you sell fossils?.
References
- Legal Information Institute, 43 CFR 49.800 (casual collecting on lands administered by NPS or FWS), current text read October 22, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/43/49.800
- Legal Information Institute, 43 CFR 49.805, "Where is casual collecting allowed?", current text read October 22, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/43/49.805
- Legal Information Institute, 43 CFR 49.810, "What is casual collecting?", current text read October 22, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/43/49.810
- Legal Information Institute, 43 CFR 49.300, "What acts are prohibited?", current text read October 22, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/43/49.300
- Legal Information Institute, 43 CFR 49.400, "What criminal penalties apply to violations of this part?", current text read October 22, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/43/49.400
- Department of the Interior, "Paleontological Resources Preservation," final rule, Federal Register, August 2, 2022 (effective September 1, 2022). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2022-08-02/pdf/2022-16405.pdf
- Bureau of Land Management, Can I Keep This? A guide to collecting on public lands, BLM/MT/GI-11/007, revised 2021. https://www.blm.gov/sites/default/files/docs/2021-10/Can%20I%20Keep%20This%202021%20-%20508%20Final%20Version.pdf
- eCFR, 36 CFR Part 291, Paleontological Resources Preservation (Forest Service), 80 FR 21630, April 17, 2015, up to date as of July 31, 2026. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36/chapter-II/part-291
- USDA Forest Service, Rockhounding Guide, FS-1091, June 2017. https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/229394
- Public Law 111-11, Title VI, Subtitle D, Paleontological Resources Preservation, sections 6301 to 6312, March 30, 2009 (as reproduced by the Forest Service). https://www.fs.usda.gov/geology/PaleoResourcePres.pdf
- Bureau of Land Management, Permanent Instruction Memorandum 2022-009, August 1, 2022. https://www.blm.gov/policy/pim-2022-009
