Nobody says he was MD'ing...could have been but the charge was he was digging holes and damaging property.
They might make an example of him...no slap on the wrist.
You know how badly people react to disturbing gravesites.
The key here is they claim damage of over $1000 to the park.
Metal detecting is allowed on some public lands, within reason, here are some rules in this U.S. Forest Service Guide in a PDF.
It even addresses treasure troves hidden to be found later although most ask you get a permit to do that.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5261774.pdf
The BLM I am sure has their own rules posted somewhere online.
Yellowstone is about 3,500 square miles big, just because these entities don't spend who knows how many dollars making and planting a million signs warning people about what you can't do doesn't mean you can do what you want just anywhere, Carte Blanche.
This has all been discussed to death before, Fenn said no matter where the hiding place was there could be some "issues", lots of rules and different regulations no matter where he could have possibly hidden it.
For instance would you have to declare it or not, even if it is not part of the natural landscape on public land, and more.
Below is the opinion of a park ranger in Yellowstone.
Maybe he has it exactly correct, maybe he doesn't, but I sure wouldn't want to be the subject of a test case.
Also an archie chimes in with a common archie opinion.
Notice the last line...Fenn specifically stated it was NOT in a graveyard.
That might have been a helpful piece of info to this guy.
According to Fenn, the treasure could be hidden in one of three places: “public land, tribal land or private property.
“Treasure hunting is not illegal in Yellowstone, but there’s a whole host of regulations that govern the preservation and use of national parks,” says Tim Reid, chief ranger at Yellowstone. “Metal detectors are illegal, digging is illegal, and you can’t remove any natural or cultural feature from the park.” If somebody were to find the Fenn treasure within the boundaries of Yellowstone, or any national park, it would be considered abandoned property, Reid says. “It’s not ‘finders, keepers.’ You would have to turn it in and go through a governmental procedure to lay claim to it.”
The treasure could be on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service or the Forest Service, which raises questions about its ownership if found. Credit: Mary Caperton Morton.
Some of the Fenn treasure hunters have run afoul of the rules in Yellowstone, and a handful have even gotten themselves banned from the park, Reid says. “People who choose to believe the treasure exists typically seem to be unprepared for wilderness conditions. We’ve had several search and rescues, and a host of violations; people have been cited and some have been arrested,” Reid says. “Some are lucky not to have been seriously injured or killed.”
Land-use regulations may seem to narrow the search field, but as Neitzel points out, Fenn hid the treasure without anybody seeing him do it, so somebody should be able to get the chest without getting caught by authorities. “The poem says ‘take the chest and go in peace,’ which may imply that a searcher shouldn’t make a fuss about where it was found,” Mason says.
“Forrest has said that there was nowhere he could have hid the treasure that would not involve some potential complications,” Mason says. “Maybe the answer is to take it clear of its hiding place and keep quiet about it.”
The Forest Service does not agree with that strategy, however. “If somebody were to find the chest and not report it, that’s theft of government property,” says Mike Bremer, a forest service archaeologist with the Santa Fe National Forest. “Frankly, I think this whole treasure hunt is a nuisance and a potential danger to the vast reserves of cultural artifacts and archaeology in Santa Fe National Forest.”
A Quest for the Ages
In the past four years, Fenn has issued a few additional hints about the location of his treasure, but he’s not giving it away: The chest is above 1,500 meters of elevation; it’s not associated with any manmade structure; and it’s not buried in a graveyard.
