Metal Detecting in Florida

1. The rule, in full

Florida – Fla. Admin. Code r. 62D-2.013 (no detecting provision) and the Division's published policy

Read from the Florida Administrative Code at flrules.org, rule 62D-2.013 effective 19 December 1999 and rule 62D-2.014 effective 30 April 2007, both the latest versions presented there; Division of Recreation and Parks policy read from floridastateparks.org. Checked 21 Sep 2026.

There is no metal detecting provision in Florida's state park rules. Neither 62D-2.013 (Park Property and Resources) nor 62D-2.014 (Activities and Recreation) mentions a metal detector. The rule that governs is the general ban on digging and removal:

Operative text, 62D-2.013(2):

"No person shall destroy, injure, deface, mar, move, dig, harmfully disturb or remove from any park area, or the waters thereof, any buildings, structures, facilities, historic ruins, equipment, park property, soil, sand, gravel, rocks, stones, minerals, marine plants or animals, artifacts, or other materials."

Scope, 62D-2.013(1):

"State parks include all real property in the State of Florida under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Recreation and Parks, or which may come under its jurisdiction regardless of the property's designation."

Determination: 62D-2.013 covers Division of Recreation and Parks land only. It does NOT reach municipal parks, and it does NOT reach Florida Forest Service land, which has its own rule and its own answer, below.

The second instrument: Florida Forest Service land, Fla. Admin. Code 5I-4.005

Read from the Florida Administrative Code at flrules.org, rules 5I-4.002, 5I-4.005 and 5I-4.006, the Word files the Code links, parsed locally. Checked 3 Oct 2026.

Added 3 Oct 2026 during the forestry and wildlife sweep. This entry previously said "Division of Recreation and Parks land only", which described what 62D-2.013 covers and was quietly read as though nothing else were known. It is recorded in METHODOLOGY under rule 1's omission corollary.

Operative text, 5I-4.005(1):

"No person shall:
(g) Destroy, injure, deface, mar, move, dig, harmfully disturb or remove any soil, sand, gravel, rocks, stones, minerals, trees, plants, artifacts or other materials from any managed lands.
(k) Use metal detectors on managed lands."

Scope, 5I-4.002(18):

"Managed Land(s): Any land, water body, or facility managed, controlled, or occupied by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Florida Forest Service."

Determination: all Florida Forest Service land, and this rule names metal detectors in terms. The two bodies of Florida state land give opposite answers. On a coastal state park beach the park service's published policy permits detecting between the toe of the dune and the high-water line. On Florida Forest Service land the Code prohibits using a metal detector at all.

Two things about the reach are worth saying plainly. First, it is wider than "state forest": the defined term is any land, water body or facility the Service manages, controls or occupies. Second, it is a different department – Agriculture and Consumer Services, not Environmental Protection – so nothing in the park rules or in the park service's policy has any bearing on it.

Borderline: whether a permit can authorise detecting is not stated, and this entry takes no position.

5I-4.005(2):

"The Service will allow certain activities on state forest lands through issuance of a State Forest Use Permit (FDACS-11228, Rev. 07/15) … A person wishing to engage in one of the activities listed in this section must contact the local Florida Forest Service office of the forest on which the person is requesting to engage in the proposed activity. The Service will issue a State Forest Use Permit provided the proposed use does not interfere with management objectives of that forest as provided in that forest's management plan; create a nuisance to wildlife, other forest users, or Service staff; pose a threat to public safety; or create a risk of wildfire."

"One of the activities listed in this section" is not defined. The section it appears in is 5I-4.005, whose subsection (1) is the list of things no person shall do, including using a metal detector. So the cross-reference can be read two ways: as making a State Forest Use Permit available for the prohibited activities, detecting among them, or as pointing only at uses subsection (2) itself contemplates. The rule does not say which, and we are not going to decide it by inference. This is the treatment Oklahoma's "exploration" and Ohio's "archaeological survey or salvage work" already have on these pages.

What a reader should do with that: ask the local Florida Forest Service office named in (2). That is not a hedge. It is the only route the rule provides, and the answer binds the land in question.

Forest Service sources: flrules.org 5I-4.002, 5I-4.005, 5I-4.006 (Word files, parsed locally). Checked 3 Oct 2026.

The detecting rule is the agency's policy, and the agency says it is a rule. Florida State Parks publishes this answer to "Where can I do metal detecting within Florida's state parks?":

"Our statewide park rules, based on regulations set out by the Florida Administrative Code, state that metal detecting is prohibited on all state park lands, except for coastal parks. In these parks, metal detecting may occur within certain beach areas located between the toe of the dune and the high-water line, as designated by the park manager. Metal detecting in submerged locations is not permitted."

"Objects with historic association (anything over 50 years old) are not permitted to be kept by park visitors, even if the objects are found in the areas approved for metal detecting."

"Because these are not coastal parks, metal detecting is not allowed at these locations." (of parks whose beach is on a lake, river or spring)

On lost property: "Metal detectors may be used to recover personal items that are specifically identified by their owner as being lost in a specific area of a park", with the search arranged by the park manager and "conducted in the presence of a park staff member", and "only the item sought may be kept".

This is METHODOLOGY rule 11 exactly. The agency is authoritative about its policy – where detecting is tolerated, what may be kept – and it is the only source for the beach allowance. It is not authoritative about the citation: the Administrative Code it points to contains no metal detecting provision. The page therefore quotes the policy as policy and the rule as the rule, and never attributes the beach allowance or the 50-year line to the Code. The 50-year line appears in no Florida statute read for this entry.

Two separate state rules reach beyond this land, and they are not the same rule. One turns on designation: a state archaeological landmark can sit on city property. The other turns on the tide: on any Florida beach, the sand seaward of the mean high water line is ordinarily state sovereignty land whoever owns the dry beach, and what the state claims there is historic material rather than modern losses. Both are set out in the political-subdivision entry below, and the tidal one matters most here, because it applies to beaches nobody has designated as anything.

Sources: flrules.org 62D-2.013 and 62D-2.014 (Word files, parsed locally); floridastateparks.org/plan-your-visit/faqs, items 1.6 and 1.7. Checked 21 Sep 2026.

What was read for the land-class sweep, and what was not. Read: Fla. Admin. Code rules 5I-4.002, 5I-4.005 and 5I-4.006 in full. Not read: the remainder of title 5I, and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's title 68A. The finding above therefore covers what was read and nothing beyond it – see sweep/README.md, "A KNOWN LIMIT OF THIS SWEEP", on why a chapter set aside on its title is an unread chapter.

2. Where it reaches city and county land

Florida – F.S. 267.11 to 267.13 (designated landmarks, and the foreshore)

Read from the 2026 Florida Statutes published by the Florida Legislature (leg.state.fl.us), sections 267.021, 267.061, 267.11, 267.12, 267.115 and 267.13, and the Florida Constitution, Art. X, s. 11, from the same site. Checked 21 Sep 2026.

Operative text, 267.13(1)(a):

"Any person who by means other than excavation conducts archaeological field investigations on, or removes or attempts to remove or defaces, destroys, or otherwise alters any archaeological site or specimen located upon, land owned or controlled by the state, land owned by a water authority, or land within the boundaries of a designated state archaeological landmark or landmark zone, except in the course of activities pursued under the authority of a permit or under procedures relating to accredited institutions granted by the division, commits a misdemeanor of the first degree".

And the second limb matters more than the first, so it is quoted here too rather than summarised. Re-read 7 Oct 2026 from the 2026 Florida Statutes at leg.state.fl.us, 267.13 in full. Operative text, 267.13(1)(b):

"Any person who by means of excavation conducts archaeological field investigations on, or removes or attempts to remove or defaces, destroys, or otherwise alters any archaeological site or specimen located upon, land owned or controlled by the state, land owned by a water authority, or land within the boundaries of a designated state archaeological landmark or landmark zone, except in the course of activities pursued under the authority of a permit or under procedures relating to accredited institutions granted by the division, commits a felony of the third degree … and any vehicle or equipment of any person used in connection with the violation is subject to forfeiture to the state if it is determined by any court of law that the vehicle or equipment was involved in the violation. Such person shall forfeit to the state all specimens, objects, and materials collected or excavated… The court may also order the defendant to make restitution to the state for the archaeological or commercial value and cost of restoration and repair."

In Florida the line between a first-degree misdemeanour and a third-degree felony is whether you dug. The two subsections are otherwise word for word identical. (1)(a) is "by means other than excavation"; (1)(b) is "by means of excavation". Nothing else distinguishes them.

That is the single most consequential sentence in Florida law for a detectorist, because recovering a target means excavating. It was previously carried on this page as a one-line summary under the misdemeanour quotation, which put the less serious limb in the operative slot and the more serious one in plain prose. Corrected 7 Oct 2026; the Virginia shape, caught here on our own page rather than on a post.

No age threshold anywhere in chapter 267. The definition the offence turns on, 267.021(4), reads: "'Historic property' or 'historic resource' means any prehistoric or historic district, site, building, object, or other real or personal property of historical, architectural, or archaeological value, and folklife resources … or other objects with intrinsic historical or archaeological value". Searched 7 Oct 2026 for "fifty", "years", "100" and "hundred": zero occurrences. Florida turns on value, not age, and any claim that objects past some birthday become state property is not in this chapter.

Scope: state land, water authority land, and designated landmarks – which can be on city land. 267.11:

"The division may publicly designate an archaeological site of significance … as a 'state archaeological landmark.' … However, no site or grouping of sites shall be so designated without the express written consent of the private owner thereof. … Once so designated, no person may conduct field investigation activities without first securing a permit from the division."

Only a private owner's consent is required. A site on city land can be designated, and once it is, 267.13 applies there. Same shape as Texas and Rhode Island: subject to designation. A city park that is not a designated landmark or inside a landmark zone is not reached.

Permits are institutional, 267.12(2): issued only where "such activity is undertaken by reputable museums, universities, colleges, or other historical, scientific, or educational institutions or societies", and specimens so collected "shall belong to the state", 267.12(4).

The tidal boundary: a separate rule, and the first of its kind here

This is not part of the landmark point and must never be folded into it. The landmark rule turns on designation; this one turns on where the tide reaches, and it applies with no designation at all. It is the first tidal-boundary rule in this project, and it lands on the single most-detected surface in Florida: an ocean beach.

The foreshore is state land. Florida Constitution, Art. X, s. 11:

"The title to lands under navigable waters, within the boundaries of the state, which have not been alienated, including beaches below mean high water lines, is held by the state, by virtue of its sovereignty, in trust for all the people."

and F.S. 267.061(1)(b):

"all treasure trove, artifacts, and such objects having intrinsic or historical and archaeological value which have been abandoned on state-owned lands or state-owned sovereignty submerged lands shall belong to the state with the title thereto vested in the Division of Historical Resources".

267.13(2)(a) lets the division fine "not more than $500 a day" anyone who, without written permission, "explores for, salvages, or excavates treasure trove, artifacts, sunken or abandoned ships, or other objects having historical or archaeological value located upon land owned or controlled by the state, including state sovereignty submerged land".

Our reading: on a beach a city owns, the sand seaward of mean high water is ordinarily still state sovereignty land unless it has been alienated, so 267 can reach the wet sand even where it does not reach the city's dry beach. One beach can therefore sit under two regimes, with the boundary moving twice a day and marked by nothing a detectorist can see.

Both limits must travel with that reading. The constitutional title covers lands "which have not been alienated", and some parcels have been; and both 267.061(1)(b) and 267.13(2)(a) are framed around "treasure trove, artifacts" and objects "having intrinsic or historical and archaeological value". Neither text addresses a modern coin or a dropped ring. So the honest statement is that the wet sand is state land where title was never alienated, and that what the state claims there is historic material, not everything metallic.

What it does NOT prohibit: detecting as such, anywhere. Chapter 267 does not mention metal detectors, on the dry sand or the wet.

Directory entry should read, as two separate points:

• Designated landmarks. Disturbing or removing an archaeological site or specimen is a crime on state land, on water authority land, and inside a designated state archaeological landmark or zone – and a landmark can be designated on city land without the city's consent, since only a private owner's consent is required.
• Below mean high water. On Florida beaches the wet sand seaward of the mean high water line is ordinarily state sovereignty land, whoever owns the dry beach above it, and treasure trove and objects of historical or archaeological value abandoned there belong to the state. Exploring for or salvaging those without written permission carries an administrative fine of up to $500 a day. It should NOT read that metal detecting is prohibited on Florida city beaches or in city parks, and it should NOT suggest the state claims ordinary modern losses on the wet sand.

3. Cities in Florida that publish a rule

4 cities in Florida publish a rule we can quote, out of 167 checked.

Of the 167 checked, 72 had pages on the city’s own site that we found and read. For the other 95 we could not locate a municipal source, so nothing is claimed about them either way.

4. County rules

County rules exist in Florida, and they govern county land only. 2 county rules surfaced while checking cities in this state. Each was read and then set aside, because a county park rule does not answer whether a city park allows detecting, and it is not the state rule either. They are listed because their existence is the useful fact: if you are in a county park, a separate rule probably applies to you.

0 of these 2 name their county in the text that was read; the rest name only “county park” or “county parks”, so the source is given instead of a county name. A county is never inferred from a web address.

And one county check did not complete. 5 cities point at a single county source that could not be read: lakecountyfl.gov. So for Florida the county position is partly unknown rather than settled, and the 2 above are what was reachable.

5. Cities checked - no published rule

163 cities in Florida were checked and have no published rule on this page. Of those, 155 returned no rule, and 8 did return something that has not been published – mostly rules that turned out to govern county land, which are in the county section above. A city here is not a city where detecting is allowed. It is a city whose own published material did not answer the question.

All 163 were checked on 13 September 2026, in one sweep, so that date applies to every row.

6. Land this page does not cover

This page answers for Florida state land, and for city and county land where the state rule reaches it. Several other kinds of ground are not covered here, and naming them is more honest than letting a reader assume the page is complete.

Tribal land. This directory does not cover it, and will not.

There are 574 federally recognised tribal nations. Each is a sovereign jurisdiction with its own law, its own permitting, its own enforcement and its own cultural-resource provisions, and none of them is answered by a state's code or by any federal rule quoted on these pages. A one-line instruction to "get tribal permission" would be worse than this paragraph, because it implies one process and one authority where there are 574. If you are on or near tribal land, the governing law is that nation's, and the place to ask is that nation's own offices. Nothing on this page applies there.

BLM land is covered, partly, in its own place. The Bureau of Land Management holds about 245 million acres and the federal rule names metal detectors and permits them, which is the opposite of the national park rule. See BLM land: the detector is named, and permitted. That page covers the base regulation; it does not yet cover the supplementary rules individual BLM State Directors issue for particular field offices.

Named and not examined. These are recorded so their absence is visible rather than silent. No claim is made about any of them:

• Military withdrawn land, including ranges and training areas.
• Bureau of Reclamation land, which surrounds a great many reservoirs.
• Water district and irrigation district land.
• Wilderness, Wilderness Study Areas and National Conservation Areas, which carry designations of their own. And one general point about signs. The commonest piece of reasoning in this subject is "there was no sign, so it was allowed." Arizona's State Land Department answers it in writing, in condition 2 of its own Recreational Permit terms:

"You will comply with all laws, rules, regulations and ordinances. Posting is not required for these provisions to be enforceable."

That is Arizona's sentence about Arizona's provisions and this directory does not present it as the law of any other state. But the proposition it states is the one to carry: nothing read for this project makes a published rule's enforceability depend on a sign at the boundary. Where posting does matter, a specific provision says so, and that provision is quoted on the page where it occurs.