THE PALEONTOLOGICAL RESOURCES PRESERVATION ACT OF 2009: STRENGTHENING STEWARDSHIP AND PARTNERSHIPS THROUGH COLLABORATION, CONSISTENCY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY

The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act was enacted to protect an invaluable, nonrenewable public asset– paleontological resource on federal lands. The Act furthers this important goal by directing the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior to: (1) use a permit system for the collection of paleontological resources from Federal land, (2) ensure that the resources that were collected under a permit are deposited into approved repositories, (3) protect the confidentiality of specific locality information, (4) manage and protect paleontological resources on the lands that they administer using scientific principles and expertise, (5) develop plans for inventories, monitoring, and scientific and educational use, (6) establish a program to increase public awareness about the significance of paleontological resources, and (7) allow casual collection of common invertebrate and plant fossils on BLM, Forest Service and Bureau of Reclamation lands where consistent with the other laws governing those lands. The Act then directs the Department of Agriculture and the Interior to issue regulations. While the Department of Agriculture regulations are already finalized, the Department of the Interior regulations (which will apply to the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Reclamation) are still under development. This presentation will focus on the Act and regulations as applicable to the DOI bureaus. It will describe which provisions of the Act contain new requirements for the DOI bureaus, and which provisions reiterate and consolidate existing requirements. In addition, this presentation will update attendees on the status of the DOI regulations. Attendee input will be welcomed on how the DOI bureaus and stakeholders can work together and collaboratively in the implementation of the Act and the DOI regulations.