No digging?

If you pop a coin out with a screwdriver and push it all back - that is not defacing. If you cut a proper plug and put it all back where no one can see - is that defacing? Now if you dig a nasty plug and don't catch your dug soil on a drop cloth and half way install it all back where it's a big dirty mess then YES this would be defacing. I don't see where it says "No metal detecting allowed" All parks and municipalities have some kind of phrase similar to this written into the books. So in essence there is no place to hunt...... I would make sure I could extract a target perfectly with a small knife or hand digger and hunt this place when there is little or no people around. No long handled shovels should be used where anyone could see you in the parks. Even the parks I have permission to search I choose my hunting times wisely. All it takes is one loud mouth to gripe to the right person and then the signs go up. I would not ask your council if detecting is allowed. I would make a copy of the rules to keep with me and if asked say it doesn't say anything about detecting.

Our county parks have the same rules. I dig there all the time, the rangers always ask if I found anything special. I dig and replace my plugs so you cant tell they were dug. I think the rules apply more to vandalism than detecting.

Where laws such as the one you posted exist, as long as you don't make a mess you should be good. Or as I've been told by our Park Rangers here

United States laws and ordinances do not apply here he is in Australia

x-terra70, this topic is divided by those that say

a) it's your duty to go ask the powers-that-be: "Does this apply to detecting/digging?"

To the other side of the persuasion spelled out well by: khouse, lucky828, & Joee5. That:

b) So long as you leave no trace, then *technically* you have not destroyED or defacED anything.

The confusion comes in the following understandable dilemma: It's *still* possible that some lookie-lou city person could gripe. Right ? Because even though YOU know you'll be neat and leave no trace (hence technically not destroyING or defacING anything), yet to the lookie-lou, they only see you digging. And draw the connotation that you might be about to leave a hole. So the alternate view will be that: In "order to be safe" or "in order to be law-abiding", it is your duty to go get permission, seek clarification, etc... Afterall, you "can't be too safe". And afterall, you "wouldn't want someone mad at you", etc.....

The trouble with asking, is that you can run afoul of the following psychology: The old "no one cared UNTIL you asked" phenomenon Aka: The "easy answer" to a "pressing question" scenario.

Then you just risk ending up with no's or new-policies where, quite frankly, no one might ever have paid you a moment's notice.

This wording you cite, as Khouse correctly points out, exists EVERYWHERE in the world . To prohibit "vandalizing", "destruction", etc.... If we are to assume it automatically means no digging to detect (till told otherwise), then it boils down to "md'ing = illegal everywhere" (till given permission to the contrary). Yet as you can see: detecting is going on at TONS of public lands, where such verbiage exists. And oddly, the fact of occasional "yes's", simply means it's not as black and white as some people think it is.

Naturally don't be a sore thumb begging for attention. Because detecting does have connotations to nosy-parkers. So just pick low traffic times and avoid such lookie lou's. Ie.: don't be in the middle of deep retrievals when they're watching, etc.....