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S22 - Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009

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Posted: February 22, 2009
9:43 pm Eastern
WorldNetDaily

WASHINGTON : A land management bill that swept through the U.S. Senate last month and is headed for a House vote this week punishes rock collectors and paleontologists with arrest and expropriation of their cars and other equipment for even unknowingly disturbing fossils on public land, say critics.

In the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, a "forfeiture" provision would let the government confiscate "all vehicles and equipment of any person" who digs up or removes a rock or a bone from federal land that meets the bill’s broad definition of "paleontological resource," says a report by Jon Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

"The seizures could take place even before a person and even if the person didn’t know they were taking or digging up a ‘paleontological resource," writes Berlau. "And the bill specifically allows the ‘transfer of seized resources’ to ‘federal or non-federal’ institutions, giving the government and some private actors great incentive to egg on the takings."

Tracie Bennitt, president of the Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences, is protesting the bill’s vague language and severe penalties.

"We can visualize now a group of students unknowingly crossing over an invisible line and ending up handcuffed and prosecuted," she wrote to members of Congress.

Subtitle D of the bill called the "Paleontological Resources Preservation Act" would make it illegal to "excavate, remove, damage, or otherwise alter or deface or attempt to excavate, remove, damage, or otherwise alter or deface any paleontological resources located on Federal land" without special permission from the government.

"Paleontological resource" is defined in the bill as "any fossilized remains, traces, or imprints of organisms, preserved in or on the earth’s crust, that are of paleontological interest and that provide information about the history of life on earth."

Penalties for violations include up to FIVE YEARS IN JAIL.

Berlau believes picking up rocks could be interpreted as a violation of the law since most would fit the broad definition under the law.

The forfeiture provision is effective before a trial and conviction, making the defendant guilty until proven innocent, Berlau suggests.

Berlau believes the House will take up a vote on the bill this week. He is urging Americans to contact representatives before the bill, known both as S. 22 and the "Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009" is approved, as expected, and heads to the White House for President Obama’s signature.

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FULL TEXT

http://s22.w-w-h.org/

1/7/2009–Introduced.
Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 - Authorizes specified programs and activities in the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture concerning, among other things, national wilderness preservation, boundary adjustments, national rivers, the national landscape conservation system, national conservation areas, land conveyances and exchanges, watershed management, watershed restoration and enhancement, wildland firefighter safety, forest landscape restoration, national trails, paleontological resources preservation, wolf livestock loss, national parks, studies, infrastructure, advisory commissions, national heritage areas, national heritage corridors, water projects, tribal water rights, ocean exploration, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) undersea research, ocean and coastal mapping integration, the integrated coastal and ocean observation system, federal ocean acidification research and monitoring, and coastal and estuarine land conservation.

Makes amendments to various public laws, including the Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 1996, the National Trails System Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978, the National Park Service Concessions Management Improvement Act of 1998, the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor Act of 1994, the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Act of 1988, the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Act, the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act, the Colorado River Storage Project Act, the National Geologic Mapping Act of 1992, the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, the Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act of 2000, and the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act.

 

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Watch out for part of hell breaking loose
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