AAAaaahhh, but this can be a *good* thing. If you get onto an old high school lawn, that's being converted from real turf to artificial turf, the trick is : Be there when the tractors are scraping off the 6", to make way for the incoming astro turf. Follow the bulldozers.
And there's tricks to know when this going to happen. Get a membership in the "builder's exchange" ($500 p/yr ?) and do key word searches on "turf" and so forth. Occasionally you'll see various projects gonna happen in your part of the state. And yes, this requires a bit of ... uh ... stealth to be inside a demolition/const. zone ... uh .... after 5pm.
But yes: Once it's astro turf, it's no good. Even if they rip it out 20 yrs. later for a new fake turf, they never go back down to the original terra firma levels
