Here's what I wrote and sent:
I have read the Draft Management Plan for Rockhound State Park and have several points I would like to make regarding the Draft Plan.
First, I note that no Geologist contributed to the development of this Draft Plan; which seems odd given that the original purpose of the Park is geological in nature.
Second, these changes will diminish attendence at this well-known park, eliminate a powerful tourist attraction drawing over 60 thousand visitors a year, and cost businesses in the state a great deal of income from those rock hounds and minerals collectors who travel great distances to visit New Mexico for mineral collecting actvities.
Thirdly, there are many unsupported assertions and errors of fact in the Draft, which I will address in detail. On page 18 it states that "The activities that most park visitors participate in are camping, hiking, birdwatching and picnicking." With over 60,000 visitors attending the park each year, I imagine that many hikers are looking at the ground for Thunder Eggs, or perhaps Jasper, depending on the trail they hike on. With only 3 FTEs it is impossible to know who was bird-watching or hiking and who was looking at the rocks.
On page 24 the Draft Plan concedes that "Rockhound State Park was originally established as a destination for rock collectors. At the time rock collecting was a popular pastime." Yes it was. It still is! In Tucson, Arizona, tens of thousands of rock collectors gather annually for the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, an event which results in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Tuscon businesses and for the City itself.
Rock Collectors from nearly every country in the world attend the event, which has grown from relatively modest beginnings in an elementary school in the mid-1950s to a 3-week convention with more than 55,000 attendees, who reserve hotel rooms for next year's show as they attend this year's show.
The Draft Plan asserts on the next page that the "once popular hobby... has declined since the 1960s" but then concedes that local businesses make a profit catering to the non-existent rock hounds. In fact many mines (including the famous Blanchard mine in New Mexico) once operated for ores are now quite profitable allowing rock hounds to dig in dumps and in the mines themselves.
Many mines are operated solely to provide mineral specimens for collectors. Major industrial mines have contracts with specimen miners who professionally remove mineral specimens from active gold and copper mines in Nevada and Arizona.
The Draft Plan asserts that there is only one state park in the US that permits rock collecting, Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas. Actually there's one in New Mexico, too, so far. There's one in Pennsylvania too, Swatera State Parkwhere fossil-bearing rock is spread for rock hounds to search for rare fossils.
There's another one in Indiana, Falls of the Ohio State Park, where there's even a Park Geologist, who arranges to have dump trucks deliver material with a wide variety of interesting rocks for rock collectors to search through. The park prohibits collecting of the amazing marine fossils present in the rocks of the Falls, except when material is delivered expressly for collectors.
Aditionally, the Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish & Wildlife Area just south of Chicago absolutely permits fossil collection, as these fragile relics quickly degrade into dirt as they weather. In Michigan, Leelanau State Park in Michigan allows collecting of Petoskey Stones along its shoreline.
Also, fossil collecting is allowed at Hueston Woods State Park in Ohio and mineral
collecting is permitted in the White Mountains National Forest in Maine and
NH. In most National Forests there are areas of interest to mineral collectors, where rules are set to control the activity but to allow careful removal of valuable or interesting stones, crystals and fossils.
Lastly, rocks are also allowed to be collected at Black Butte Reservoir State Park in California and Monte Cristo State Park in Nevada. Crystal Park in Montana is a Forest Service facility that caters to rockhounds. Let's count now, that's nine parks just that I could find in a few minutes that contradicts the incorrect assertion that there aren't any parks for rock collectors.
There are also many for-profit collecting sites, claims staked on BLM land in rich mineralized areas in Colorado, Wyoming, miners and field collectors who still strike it rich by developing sources of rare and beautiful minerals and fossils worth whatever the market will bear. Usually it will bear quite a bit. I've seen single calcite crystal specimens going for tens of thousands of dollars, not even gemstones!
In the next-to-last paragraph on page 24 the Draft Plan states "Not only does rock collecting in a public park contradict the principle of natural resource protection." This is an incomplete sentence, which I suppose is OK in a Draft, but it's pretty sloppy. I would have hated to see such a construction in a professional product in my position as manager of software development for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection!
The Draft Plan goes on to quote from NMSA 1978, Section 16-2-32, which specifically allows for the "removal of a ... natural object for scientific study or for non-commercial use by an individual as a souvenir [sic]." Obviously this law allows for legitimate hobby collecting at this park, under the rules already successfully used for 50 years! The Draft Plan claims this law prohibits collecting, while quoting the very clause of the act that allows collecting, amazing!
The facts are clearly not being considered by the drafters of this plan. The very existence of this State Park is owed to Rock Hounding. The donation of the land was intended to further the hobby of Rock Hounding.
I have little doubt that New Mexico's ownership of the land, intended to further the enjoyment of the public by facilitating rock hounding as a hobby, could be challenged legally if the public was no longer allowed to pursue Rockhounding at Rockhound State Park! My understanding is that the conveyance of the property specifically requires that the land be used to support the activity of mineral collecting. If this turns out to be the case, any non-profit could take the property over - freeing the government-paid FTEs to seek other employment, while volunteers manage the park for collectors, as the original owner required.
The brief mention of rock hounding safety concerns in a modern world where people routinely climb Half-Dome at Yosemite National Park is absurd and self-serving.
"Park staff has already begun the transition away from rock collecting." Really? By what authority have they done this while the "Draft Management Plan" is still open for public comment? It appears that no public comment will be considered, this is a done deal. Public employees are just going to do what they want, with no regard for the feelings of the public they are supposed to be serving!
I worked in the public sector most of my career, and I saw this attitude often. Once I entered management, I made sure my staff provided information, which was our business, to the public, when and as needed. Eventually, all that information was available on web pages for the down loading.
Obviously there is a lesson here for the folks who worked on the so-called Draft Management Plan. They didn't know to hide the fact that the decisions are already made, without regard to the required request for public comment. They didn't care to research the facts, having decided what to do with their "private" park in the absence of facts, and probably in violation of the New Mexico regulations pertaining to making changes to existing management plans.
There is room for a wide variety of parks in the world. Bird watching is lovely, I do it every day, even the days when I rock hound. They aren't mutually exclusive. New Mexico has been famous in the rock hounding community for hosting a park dedicated to rock hounding. Now it will be famous for killing the Rock Hounding at their famous park!
What a way to be remembered!
Thanks for your time,
J. R. Hodel,
Systems Analyst, retired
Rock Hound
Mineral and Locality Search
