Digger_O'Dell
06-03-2016, 12:17 AM
As I've run afoul of some local anti detecting ordinances lately I thought to do some more checking on areas I hunt or planned to hunt and was very surprised at what I found. At least here in Wisconsin the laws can vary from one side of the street to the other.
One example was Fon Du Lac where I had planned to go this weekend. Seems all is good in the city, but the town has a specific ban on detecting. It took a lot of digging (no pun intended) to find the ordinances pertaining to Milwaukee county, but I found an ordinance that reads "No person shall open any trench for any purpose, or dig into, or take up any park or parkway without the written permission of the department of parks..". Another section mentions to not defile or I'll use of tree, shrub.....turf...etc. As it turns out, almost every place I have detected on public property had some rule making it illegal. Guess it's up to who actually enforces these bans as detecting is mostly banned on public lands at every level.
I would love to hear from around the country, after actually researching their local ordinances who detected illegally and didn't know it.
One example was Fon Du Lac where I had planned to go this weekend. Seems all is good in the city, but the town has a specific ban on detecting. It took a lot of digging (no pun intended) to find the ordinances pertaining to Milwaukee county, but I found an ordinance that reads "No person shall open any trench for any purpose, or dig into, or take up any park or parkway without the written permission of the department of parks..". Another section mentions to not defile or I'll use of tree, shrub.....turf...etc. As it turns out, almost every place I have detected on public property had some rule making it illegal. Guess it's up to who actually enforces these bans as detecting is mostly banned on public lands at every level.
I would love to hear from around the country, after actually researching their local ordinances who detected illegally and didn't know it.