# U.S. fossil collecting laws and ethics

Canonical page: https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils/collecting-laws
Last reviewed: September 18, 2026
Page purpose: Conservative educational overview of U.S. fossil-collecting rules. This is not legal advice.

## Direct answer

Do not decide whether collection is legal from the fossil name alone. Confirm the land manager, read the current site-specific rule, and ask the local office when a boundary, fossil category, closure, tool, quantity, significance, or intended use is uncertain. When in doubt, leave the fossil in place.

## Land categories

- National Park System: recreational collecting, removing, or disturbing fossils is prohibited. Scientific work requires an approved permit.
- BLM-managed land: limited casual collection may be allowed in eligible, unrestricted places for qualifying common invertebrate and plant fossils, for personal noncommercial use, with surface collection or small non-powered hand tools and negligible disturbance. BLM states 25 pounds per person per day for common nonvertebrate fossils. Petrified wood has a separate limit of 25 pounds plus one piece per day and 250 pounds per year. Local restrictions can be stricter.
- National Forest System land: limited recreational collection of common invertebrate and plant fossils may be allowed on many lands for personal noncommercial use, subject to local closures and restrictions. Verify with the local forest or ranger district.
- State, local, tribal, and private land: no single national rule applies. Obtain the applicable authority's or landowner's permission and follow all laws. Tribal lands are sovereign lands.

Do not collect vertebrate fossils, trackways, uncommon or scientifically significant fossils under a casual-collection theory. Do not sell or barter casually collected federal fossils. Leave unusual finds in place, document without publishing sensitive coordinates, and report them to the responsible land manager or a qualified paleontologist.

## Primary guidance

- Bureau of Land Management, Can I Collect Fossils?: https://www.blm.gov/programs/paleontology/collecting-fossils
- Bureau of Land Management, Can I Keep This?: https://www.blm.gov/Learn/Can-I-Keep-This
- National Park Service, Fossil Protection: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/fossils/fossil-protection.htm
- National Park Service, Leave No Trace—Fossil Conservation: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/fossils/leave-no-trace-fossil-conservation.htm
- U.S. Forest Service, Recreational Mineral Collecting: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd600769.pdf