Title 16 — ConservationRelease 119-73not60

§470aaa Definitions

Title 16 › Chapter 1C— PALEONTOLOGICAL RESOURCES PRESERVATION › § 470aaa

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

The chapter explains what key words mean for fossil collecting and for the lands and officials covered by the rules. "Casual collecting" means taking a reasonable, small amount of common plant or invertebrate fossils for personal, non-commercial use by surface picking or hand tools that cause almost no damage; the Secretary decides what counts as reasonable, common, and negligible. "Paleontological resource" means fossils or fossil traces that tell about life on Earth, but not materials tied to archaeological resources (see section 470bb(1)) or cultural items (see section 3001 of title 25). "Federal land" means land run by the Secretary of the Interior (not Indian land) or National Forest System land run by the Secretary of Agriculture. "Indian land" means tribal or individual Indian land held in trust or restricted by the United States. "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Interior for Interior land and the Secretary of Agriculture for National Forest System land. "State" means the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any other U.S. territory or possession.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §470aaa

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

In this chapter:

(1)The term “casual collecting” means the collecting of a reasonable amount of common invertebrate and plant paleontological resources for non-commercial personal use, either by surface collection or the use of non-powered hand tools resulting in only negligible disturbance to the Earth’s surface and other resources. As used in this paragraph, the terms “reasonable amount”, “common invertebrate and plant paleontological resources” and “negligible disturbance” shall be determined by the Secretary.

(2)The term “Federal land” means—

(A)land controlled or administered by the Secretary of the Interior, except Indian land; or

(B)National Forest System land controlled or administered by the Secretary of Agriculture.

(3)The term “Indian Land” means land of Indian tribes, or Indian individuals, which are either held in trust by the United States or subject to a restriction against alienation imposed by the United States.

(4)The term “paleontological resource” means 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, except that the term does not include—

(A)any materials associated with an archaeological resource (as defined in section 470bb(1) of this title; 11 So in original. A closing parenthesis probably should precede the semicolon. or

(B)any cultural item (as defined in section 3001 of title 25).

(5)The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Interior with respect to land controlled or administered by the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to National Forest System land controlled or administered by the Secretary of Agriculture.

(6)The term “State” means the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any other territory or possession of the United States.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 470aaa

Title 16 — Conservation

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60