On state park land
Permission needed
On Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation land a permit is required to use a detector and is granted for designated areas only, 9 NYCRR 372.7(o); making an excavation there is absolutely prohibited by 9 NYCRR 375.1(e), which carries no permit route. On Department of Environmental Conservation Fish and Wildlife land a written permit from the Department is needed to use or even possess a detector afield, 6 NYCRR 51.8(f)1, with a carve-out for licensed surveyors. On DEC's Lands and Forests holdings, which 6 NYCRR 190.0(a) lists as State forests, reforestation areas, multiple use areas and the forest preserve, no rule regulates the detector itself, but 6 NYCRR 190.8(g) prohibits removing soil, rock or an object of archaeological or paleontological interest except for personal consumption or under permit from both the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation and the Commissioner of Education, pursuant to Education Law 233. Wider than all of these, Education Law 233(4) makes it a class A misdemeanor to investigate, excavate, remove, appropriate or destroy any object of archaeological, historical, cultural, social, scientific or paleontological interest on, in or under land owned by the State without the written permission of the commissioner of education, with forfeiture of the items and of the instrumentalities; it sets no age test, and its reporting duty falls on the managing agency rather than the finder. The park sections were read from a mirror and not from an authoritative text; the official NYCRR exists only in print.
1. The rule, in full
New York – 9 NYCRR 372.7 and 375.1
Sourcing note, 17 Oct 2026. New York publishes less of its law in retrievable form than any other state in this directory. On 17 Oct 2026 parks.ny.gov, dec.ny.gov, www.nysenate.gov and the Westlaw NYCRR browser each returned HTTP 403, public.leginfo.state.ny.us did not answer, and dec.ny.gov – which answered on 3 Oct 2026 – no longer does. The official NYCRR is the printed edition published by the Department of State and is not online. Everything below names the document it was read from and the date it was read.
Read from 9 NYCRR Title 9, Subtitle I, Chapter I, Subchapter A, copied from govt.westlaw.com/nycrr by Jason Smith on 17 October 2026 and archived with their sha256. Two limits on the source, both on its face: the compilation is unofficial, and both sections read "Current through March 15, 2023". The official NYCRR is the printed edition published by the Department of State and is not online. Both sections below are excerpts; Jason holds the full text, and the omitted subdivisions – fireworks, camping, hunting, COVID face coverings, littering, attire and the rest – do not bear on detecting.
Operative text, 9 NYCRR 372.7(o), "Metal detectors":
"The use or operation of a metal detector or other mechanical device to locate buried or concealed metal. Permits shall be granted for use of metal detectors in designated areas only."
That sits under 372.7's lead-in, "The following activities shall require a permit:".
And digging is not in the same class at all. 9 NYCRR 375.1 is headed "Activities absolutely prohibited", and 375.1(e), "Injury to property", reads:
"No person shall make an excavation on or injure, destroy, deface, remove, fill in, tamper with or cut any real or personal property, tree or other plant life."
A 372.7(o) permit is a permit to use a detector, not a permit to dig. The two provisions are in different Parts and different categories: one is an activity requiring a permit, the other an activity absolutely prohibited, and 375.1 offers no permit route. This is the single most important thing the capture added, and the mirror text the entry previously relied on did not include 375.1(e) at all.
Scope, from 375.1's own opening words:
"The activities and uses enumerated in this section shall be absolutely prohibited on property under the jurisdiction, custody and control of the office."
"The office" is the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Two further subdivisions of 372.7 bear on a detectorist.
"(n) Archaeological excavations. The exploration for and excavation and gathering of archaeological or paleontological objects. Permits shall be subject to the approval of the New York State Education Department." "(k) Research and educational projects. The conducting of a research or educational project including, but not limited to, the collection and possession of specimens."
372.7(n) routes the park permit back through the Education Department, which is the same answer Education Law 233 gives from the statute side: an archaeological excavation permit on OPRHP land needs NYSED's approval, and 233(5) lets an agency head permit only persons the commissioner of education has authorised. The two instruments agree.
And 375.1(h) makes a closure enforceable on its own:
"No person shall enter or remain upon any property or within any structure during such hours, seasonal or indefinite periods that such property or structure has been designated as closed by a sign or by an employee of the office."
Determination: state park land only. Does NOT reach municipal parks.
Using a detector on OPRHP land requires a 372.7(o) permit and is granted for designated areas only, issued regionally or by individual park. Making an excavation there is absolutely prohibited by 375.1(e), with no permit route in that Part.
Note for the city data, not the state table: New York City runs its own separate metal detector permit through NYC Parks. That is a municipal rule and belongs on the city row, not here.
The second instrument: DEC Fish and Wildlife land, 6 NYCRR 51.8(f)1
Read from the Department of Environmental Conservation's own adoption document, "6 NYCRR Part 51: Public Use of Wildlife Management Areas", express terms, effective 1 January 2022 (dec.ny.gov, parsed locally). Checked 3 Oct
- Why that document and not a consolidated code is set out below. New York runs its state parks through one agency and its wildlife land through another, and the two answers differ in kind. Operative text, 51.8(f)1:
"No person shall use or possess a metal detector afield, except under written permit from the Department. Licensed surveyors using a metal detector to locate survey markers shall not be prohibited."
Scope, 51.0(a):
"Except as otherwise provided, the provisions of this Part shall apply to all persons entering upon or using State lands under the Department's jurisdiction that are administered by the Division of Fish and Wildlife, including but not limited to wildlife management areas, fish and wildlife management areas, and the following unique areas and multiple use areas: Bog Brook Unique Area, Seward's Island Unique Area, Junius Ponds Unique Area, Harwood Lake Multiple Use Area, and Carlton Hill Multiple Use Area."
Determination: DEC Division of Fish and Wildlife land. It prohibits possession, not only use. That is unusual and it is the part to get right. On OPRHP park land the permit is for using a detector in designated areas. On DEC Fish and Wildlife land, carrying one "afield" without a written permit from the Department is itself prohibited, whether or not it is switched on. The one express carve-out is for licensed surveyors locating survey markers.
The two New York answers therefore differ in kind, not just in degree, and they come from two different agencies. Nothing in 9 NYCRR bears on DEC land and nothing in 6 NYCRR bears on OPRHP land.
Why this is cited to an adoption document. DEC states that its online regulations "reflect changes only through December 31, 2021", and that the WestlawNext compilation it publishes is titled Unofficial and is "not certified copies of the regulations and therefore should not be relied upon for legal interpretation". Those two quotations were read from dec.ny.gov on 3 Oct 2026 and the page is no longer reachable – every DEC route tested on 17 Oct 2026 returned HTTP 403 – so they rest on that read rather than on an archived copy. The Part 51 express terms PDF itself is archived with its sha256. Part 51 took effect 1 January 2022 – the day after that cutoff. So no consolidated version available online carries this provision at all.
So the choice here is not between a compilation and the code, it is between the agency's own adoption document and nothing. The adoption document is the authoritative text for Part 51; it simply has not been consolidated yet, which is why it is cited directly.
Two checks were run before relying on it. DEC's proposed, emergency and recently adopted listings carry no Part 51 item in the last twelve months, so the 1 January 2022 text is current. And the official source, if certainty is needed, is the written NYCRR published by the Department of State, which is not online. Read that before quoting this provision anywhere it has to be relied upon – the same caveat this project already carries on Vermont's statutes.
State-owned land: Education Law 233(4)
Read from New York Education Law 233, copied from nysenate.gov by Jason Smith on 17 October 2026 and archived with its sha256. The section sits in the Education Law, not the parks statute, because it belongs to the State Museum and the commissioner of education.
Operative text, 233(4):
"Except as otherwise provided in subdivision three of this section, no person shall investigate, excavate, remove, injure, appropriate or destroy any object of archaeological, historical, cultural, social, scientific or paleontological interest, situated on, in or under lands owned by the state of New York, without the written permission of the commissioner of education. A violation of this provision shall constitute a class A misdemeanor."
Four things to take from it.
It reaches state-owned land and stops there. "Situated on, in or under lands owned by the state of New York" is the whole scope. Municipal and county land are outside it, and so is private land.
There is no age test anywhere in the section. What is protected is an object "of archaeological, historical, cultural, social, scientific or paleontological interest" – six kinds of interest and not one threshold in years. The verbs are equally wide: investigate, excavate, remove, injure, appropriate or destroy.
The permission comes from the commissioner of education, not from the agency that runs the ground. 233(5) adds that the heads of the state departments or agencies may grant permits "upon the lands under their respective jurisdictions" but only "to persons authorized by the commissioner of education for the purposes of the state museum and state science service" – so the agency permit rides on the commissioner's authorisation, and both are directed at museum and science purposes rather than recreation.
And the consequences go past the misdemeanor. The same subdivision directs the attorney general to seek "civil and/or criminal prosecution, civil and/or criminal penalties and any other relief, including but not limited to seizure and forfeiture of the appropriate items, and forfeiture of the instrumentalities of the unauthorized actions on state lands." The instrumentality of detecting is a detector.
The reporting duty in 233(4) is not a finder's duty. Its last sentence reads: "The discovery of any such objects shall be forthwith reported to the commissioner by the state department or agency having jurisdiction over such lands." The obligation is on the managing agency, not on the person who found the object, and it is worth saying so plainly because the shape invites the opposite reading.
DEC state lands: 6 NYCRR 190.0 and 190.8
Read from 6 NYCRR Part 190, "State Lands Generally", copied from govt.westlaw.com/nycrr by Jason Smith on 17 October 2026 and archived with its sha256. Two limits on this source, both on its face: the compilation labels itself "Unofficial New York Codes, Rules and Regulations", and each section reads "Current through February 28, 2022". The official NYCRR exists only in print. Both sections below are excerpts; Jason holds the full text of each.
The scope clause, 190.0(a):
"Except as otherwise provided, the provisions of this Part shall apply to all persons entering upon or using State lands under the department's jurisdiction that are administered by the Division of Lands and Forests, the Division of Operations, or both, including but not limited to such lands as unique areas, State forests, reforestation areas, multiple use areas, forest preserve, conservation areas, natural resource management areas, preserves, campgrounds and environmentally sensitive lands, and to those rights owned and managed by the State as conservation easements as defined in section 190.12 of this Part."
That is the class of land this Part governs, and it is the class the entry previously had to leave open: State forests, reforestation areas, multiple use areas and the forest preserve are all named in it.
The prohibition, 190.8(g):
"No person shall deface, remove, destroy or otherwise injure in any manner whatsoever any tree, flower, shrub, fern, fungi or other plant like organisms, moss or other plant, rock, soil, fossil or mineral or object of archaeological or paleontological interest found or growing on State land, except for personal consumption or under permit from the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation and the Commissioner of Education, pursuant to section 233 of the Education Law."
Three things to take from (g).
It reaches the ground as well as the object. "Rock, soil, fossil or mineral" sits in the same list as "object of archaeological or paleontological interest". A dig disturbs soil whether or not it produces a find, so the prohibition does not wait for the find.
The permit route requires both commissioners, and it runs through Education Law 233. The words are "under permit from the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation and the Commissioner of Education, pursuant to section 233 of the Education Law". This is the same provision set out above, approached from the land side: 233(5) lets an agency head permit only "persons authorized by the commissioner of education", and 190.8(g) says the same thing from DEC's end. The two instruments agree, and neither offers a recreational route.
The text carries an exception for "personal consumption", and it is quoted here without interpretation. What it covers is not stated in the subdivision, and nothing in this entry extends it or narrows it. It is recorded because it is in the text.
Three further subdivisions of 190.8 bear on being there at all.
"(u) No person shall enter or remain upon or use any forest access road, truck trail, road, trail, facility or any other area on State lands that are posted or designated by the department as closed to public use." "(p) No person shall fail to comply with the instructions contained on a sign of the Department of Environmental Conservation."
Together those make a posted closure and a sign enforceable in their own right, independently of (g).
"(ad) No person shall sponsor, conduct or participate in any research project on State lands except under permit from the department. Examples of research include, but are not limited to, population studies, collection of scientific samples, placement of scientific instruments, seismic exploration and archaeological studies. This subdivision shall not apply to bird population data collection such as, but not limited, to Audubon Christmas Bird Count, the USGS Breeding Bird Survey and Cornell Lab of Ornithology's e-Bird database; nor shall it apply to any other research exempted by the department in writing on a case by case basis."
(ad) names "archaeological studies" as an example of research needing a department permit. Its exemptions are the bird-count surveys and whatever the department exempts in writing.
No detector-specific rule appears in these sections, and none appears in the Part's section titles. The titles of 190.0 to 190.13 are: Introduction; Fire; Official signs and structures; Camping sites; Camping permits; Permissible structures; Open camps; Public campgrounds; General; Use of pesticides on State lands; Unique areas; Environmentally sensitive lands; Conservation easements; Wilderness areas in the Adirondack Park. None names a detector, a relic or an artifact. So on DEC's Lands and Forests holdings the detector is not regulated as a device, as it is on Fish and Wildlife land under 6 NYCRR 51.8(f)1; what is regulated is removing the soil and the object, under 190.8(g).
The mirror is gone, and what it got right is worth recording. Until 17 Oct 2026 the two park sections rested on law.cornell.edu, read 19 Sep 2026, flagged here as a mirror nobody had checked. Jason's Westlaw capture lets them be checked, and both quotations are identical word for word – the 372.7(o) sentence and 375.1's "jurisdiction, custody and control of the office". The mirror was accurate on everything this entry quoted from it.
One thing it carried that the capture does not support. The entry also said, in quotation marks, that 372.7 applies to "any lands under the jurisdiction of the office". That phrase is not in the captured excerpt, whose 372.7 lead-in is "The following activities shall require a permit:". It is not shown to be wrong – it may sit in a part of Part 372 that was not copied – but it is no longer quoted here, and the scope now rests on 375.1's own words.
Not read, and therefore not relied on anywhere above:
- 6 NYCRR 190.1 to 190.7 and 190.9 to 190.13. 190.0 and 190.8 are read and quoted above; the other sections of the Part are known only by their titles, which are listed above, and none of those titles names a detector, a relic or an artifact.
- The subdivisions of 190.8 other than (g), (p), (u) and (ad), which cover vessels, alcohol, horses, signs and similar matters. They were not copied because none bears on the access question. Sources: dec.ny.gov p51expressterms.pdf (effective 1/1/2022), parsed locally, and dec.ny.gov regulations and recently-adopted pages, all read 3 Oct 2026. 9 NYCRR 372.7 and 375.1 were copied from govt.westlaw.com/nycrr by Jason Smith on 17 Oct 2026 as excerpts, each archived with its sha256; that compilation is unofficial and current through 15 Mar 2023, and it replaced a law.cornell.edu mirror read 19 Sep 2026 whose quoted text it matches word for word. 6 NYCRR 190.0 and 190.8 were copied from govt.westlaw.com/nycrr by Jason Smith on 17 Oct 2026 as excerpts, each archived with its sha256; that compilation is unofficial and current through 28 Feb 2022. Education Law 233 was copied from nysenate.gov the same day. Every official New York route was re-tested 17 Oct 2026 and all refused. Checked 17 October 2026. Determination: on OPRHP park land a permit is required to use a detector and is granted for designated areas only, 9 NYCRR 372.7(o), and making an excavation there is absolutely prohibited by 9 NYCRR 375.1(e). On DEC Division of Fish and Wildlife land a written permit from the Department is needed to use or even possess a detector afield, 6 NYCRR 51.8(f)1, with a carve-out for licensed surveyors. On DEC's Lands and Forests holdings – State forests, reforestation areas, multiple use areas and the forest preserve, all named in 6 NYCRR 190.0(a) – no rule regulates the detector itself, but 6 NYCRR 190.8(g) prohibits removing soil, rock or an object of archaeological or paleontological interest except for personal consumption or under permit from both the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation and the Commissioner of Education, pursuant to Education Law 233; 190.8(ad) separately requires a department permit for archaeological studies. Wider than all of these, Education Law 233(4) makes it a class A misdemeanor to remove such an object from any land owned by the State without the written permission of the commissioner of education. Neither reaches municipal parks; New York City runs its own permit and that belongs on the city row. The 6 NYCRR sections rest on an unofficial compilation current through 28 Feb 2022, and the ownership of a find on state land is still governed by instruments that have not been read, so no determination is offered on ownership.
2. Cities in New York that publish a rule
1 city in New York publishes a rule we can quote, out of 124 checked.
Johnson City
Prohibited
No person shall use any metal detector within the confines of the park.
johnsoncityny.gov/parks-recreation/ · checked 13 September 2026
3. County rules
County rules exist in New York, and they govern county land only. 7 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.
| Surfaced while checking | What the county rule does | County or source |
|---|---|---|
| Binghamton | Published but unclear | Broome County |
| Elmira | Prohibited | Chemung County |
| Endicott | Allowed with conditions | broomecountyny.gov source, county not named |
| Horseheads | Prohibited | Chemung County |
| New Rochelle | Published but unclear | parks.westchestercountyny.gov source, county not named |
| Peekskill | Published but unclear | parks.westchestercountyny.gov source, county not named |
| White Plains | Published but unclear | parks.westchestercountyny.gov source, county not named |
4. Cities checked - no published rule
123 cities in New York were checked and have no published rule on this page. Of those, 116 returned no rule, and 7 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.
| City | Outcome | Site checked |
|---|---|---|
| Binghamton | Rule found, not published | binghamton-ny.gov |
| Elmira | Rule found, not published | cityofelmirany.gov |
| Endicott | Rule found, not published | endicottny.gov |
| Horseheads | Rule found, not published | townofhorseheads.gov |
| New Rochelle | Rule found, not published | newrochelleny.gov |
| Peekskill | Rule found, not published | cityofpeekskillny.gov |
| White Plains | Rule found, not published | whiteplainsny.gov |
| Airmont | No rule found | airmont.gov |
| Albany | No rule found | albanyny.gov |
| Amsterdam | No rule found | amsterdamny.gov |
| Auburn | No rule found | auburnny.gov |
| Aurora | No rule found | townofaurorany.gov |
| Babylon | No rule found | townofbabylonny.gov |
| Batavia | No rule found | cityofbataviany.gov |
| Bath | No rule found | townofbathny.gov |
| Beacon | No rule found | beaconny.gov |
| Buffalo | No rule found | buffalony.gov |
| Camillus | No rule found | townofcamillus.gov |
| Canandaigua | No rule found | canandaiguanewyork.gov |
| Canton | No rule found | cantonny.gov |
| Catskill | No rule found | villageofcatskillny.gov |
| Chester | No rule found | chester-ny.gov |
| Chestnut Ridge | No rule found | chestnutridgevillage.org |
| Cohoes | No rule found | cohoes-ny.gov |
| Colonie | No rule found | colonievillage.gov |
| Corning | No rule found | cityofcorningny.gov |
| Cortland | No rule found | cortlandny.gov |
| Depew | No rule found | depewny.gov |
| Dobbs Ferry | No rule found | dobbsferry.gov |
| Dryden | No rule found | drydenvillageny.gov |
| Dunkirk | No rule found | cityofdunkirkny.gov |
| East Hampton | No rule found | ehamptonny.gov |
| East Rockaway | No rule found | no site recorded |
| Fishkill | No rule found | fishkill-ny.gov |
| Floral Park | No rule found | fpvillage.org |
| Freeport | No rule found | no site recorded |
| Fulton | No rule found | cityoffultonny.gov |
| Garden City | No rule found | gardencityny.net |
| Geneseo | No rule found | geneseony.org |
| Geneva | No rule found | cityofgenevany.gov |
| Glen Cove | No rule found | glencoveny.gov |
| Glens Falls | No rule found | cityofglensfallsny.gov |
| Gloversville | No rule found | cityofgloversvilleny.gov |
| Goshen | No rule found | townofgoshenny.gov |
| Great Neck | No rule found | greatneckvillage.gov |
| Hamburg | No rule found | townofhamburgny.gov |
| Harrison | No rule found | harrison-ny.gov |
| Haverstraw | No rule found | townofhaverstraw.gov |
| Hempstead | No rule found | hempsteadny.gov |
| Ithaca | No rule found | cityofithacany.gov |
| Jamestown | No rule found | jamestownny.net |
| Kenmore | No rule found | kenmoreny.gov |
| Kingston | No rule found | kingston-ny.gov |
| Kiryas Joel | No rule found | kiryasjoel.gov |
| Lackawanna | No rule found | lackawannany.gov |
| Lake Grove | No rule found | lakegroveny.gov |
| Lancaster | No rule found | lancasterny.gov |
| Lansing | No rule found | lansingtownny.gov |
| Lewiston | No rule found | townoflewistonny.gov |
| Liberty | No rule found | townoflibertyny.gov |
| Lindenhurst | No rule found | no site recorded |
| Lockport | No rule found | elockport.gov |
| Long Beach | No rule found | longbeachny.gov |
| Lynbrook | No rule found | lynbrookvillage.gov |
| Malone | No rule found | malonetownny.gov |
| Mamaroneck | No rule found | townofmamaroneckny.gov |
| Manlius | No rule found | manliusvillageny.gov |
| Massapequa Park | No rule found | no site recorded |
| Massena | No rule found | massenany.gov |
| Middletown | No rule found | middletown-ny.com |
| Mineola | No rule found | mineola-ny.gov |
| Monroe | No rule found | townofmonroeny.gov |
| Montgomery | No rule found | townofmontgomeryny.gov |
| Mount Kisco | No rule found | mountkiscony.gov |
| Mount Vernon | No rule found | cmvny.gov |
| New Hartford | No rule found | townofnewhartfordny.gov |
| New Hyde Park | No rule found | no site recorded |
| New Paltz | No rule found | townofnewpaltzny.gov |
| New York | No rule found | nyc.gov |
| Newburgh | No rule found | cityofnewburgh-ny.gov |
| Niagara Falls | No rule found | niagarafallsny.gov |
| North Tonawanda | No rule found | northtonawanda.gov |
| Ogdensburg | No rule found | ogdensburgny.gov |
| Olean | No rule found | cityofolean.gov |
| Oneida | No rule found | oneidacityny.gov |
| Oneonta | No rule found | cityofoneontany.gov |
| Orchard Park | No rule found | orchardparkny.gov |
| Ossining | No rule found | townofossiningny.gov |
| Oswego | No rule found | oswegony.gov |
| Owego | No rule found | townofowegony.gov |
| Patchogue | No rule found | patchoguevillage.gov |
| Pelham | No rule found | pelhamny.gov |
| Pittsford | No rule found | townofpittsfordny.gov |
| Plattsburgh | No rule found | cityofplattsburgh-ny.gov |
| Port Chester | No rule found | portchesterny.gov |
| Potsdam | No rule found | townofpotsdamny.gov |
| Poughkeepsie | No rule found | cityofpoughkeepsie.gov |
| Rochester | No rule found | cityofrochester.gov |
| Rockville Centre | No rule found | rvcny.gov |
| Rome | No rule found | romeny.gov |
| Rye | No rule found | ryeny.gov |
| Rye Brook | No rule found | ryebrookny.gov |
| Saratoga Springs | No rule found | saratogaspringsny.gov |
| Saugerties | No rule found | saugertiesny.gov |
| Schenectady | No rule found | cityofschenectady.gov |
| Southampton | No rule found | southamptontownny.gov |
| Spring Valley | No rule found | springvalleyny.gov |
| Suffern | No rule found | suffernny.gov |
| Syracuse | No rule found | syr.gov |
| Tarrytown | No rule found | tarrytowngov.com |
| Tonawanda | No rule found | tonawanda.gov |
| Troy | No rule found | troyny.gov |
| Utica | No rule found | uticany.gov |
| Valley Stream | No rule found | no site recorded |
| Victor | No rule found | townofvictorny.gov |
| Warwick | No rule found | townofwarwickny.gov |
| Watertown | No rule found | citywatertown.org |
| Watervliet | No rule found | watervlietny.gov |
| Webster | No rule found | villageofwebsterny.gov |
| West Haverstraw | No rule found | westhaverstraw.gov |
| Westbury | No rule found | villageofwestbury.gov |
| Woodbury | No rule found | townofwoodburyny.gov |
| Yonkers | No rule found | yonkersny.gov |
5. Clubs in New York
16 in our directory for New York - 9 verified against their own website or group, 7 we could not verify. Verified means we opened the link and read it. All New York clubs on the club directory, with meeting nights and contacts where we have them.
- EARTH Club - earthmetaldetecting.com · verified
- EARTH Metal Detecting Club of Central & Upstate New York - Facebook group · verified
- Empire State Metal Detector Association - esmdaclub.com · verified
- Genesee Valley Treasure Seekers - gvts.org · Rochester · verified
- New York Metal Detecting - Facebook group · verified
- New York State Gold Prospectors - Facebook group · verified
- Niagara Frontier Relic Hunters Association, Inc - Facebook page · Williamville · verified
- Staten Island History Hunters - sihistoryhunters.com · Staten Island · verified
- Syracuse Metal Detectives - Facebook group · verified
- Artifact Detecting Team - could not verify
- Atlantic Treasure Club - Wantagh · could not verify
- Electronic Archaeological Recovery Treasure Hunters - could not verify
- Enchanted Mountain Treasure Hunters - Allegany · could not verify
- Putnam/Westchester Metal Detectorists and Archaeological Society - Yorktown Heights · could not verify
- Richmond Research & Recovery - Staten Island · could not verify
- Southern Tier Metal Detectors Association - Jamestown · could not verify
6. Land this page does not cover
This page answers for New York 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.