CU profs being investigated for illegal fossil gathering in Utah

Boulder Camera ^ | 10/26/2012 | Nancy Lofholm

[george76]

Two University of Colorado professors are being investigated by the Bureau of Land Management for taking fossils from a remote area of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah without a permit.

The professors, who have not been named, and a group of students with them were breaking off slabs of rock containing fossils in a remote section of the monument in early October when a tour guide discovered them and informed them that what they were doing was illegal.

The guide with Escape Goat Tours and Shuttle Service reported that the professors told him to mind his own business as they continued to load fossils into a truck. The guide took a photo of their license plate and reported them to authorities.

A BLM ranger identified the driver of the vehicle through the license plate and contacted the driver where the group was staying overnight in Grand Junction. The professors agreed to return the fossils.

"It wasn't like they were on the run and trying to evade anyone

[george76]

Plate photo pinches pilfering paleontologist perps.

Faculty folk fingered for feloniously filching fossils.

ht comments

[bgill]

bona- fide researchers are allowed to take specimens from the monument — but only with permits that are fairly easily obtained

IOW, it's all about the money. That said, the profs should lose their tenure and their teacher's licenses.

[GeronL]

arrogant liberal professors I bet

[Don Corleone]

the professors told him to mind his own business as they ....

were registered Democrats and could do anything that pleased them...so there!

[Hardraade]

And the monument is owned by the UN? Or Arabs? Or is that the same thing these days?

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Cellmate: "Hey pal, what are you in for?"

Professor: "Illegal fossil gathering."

Cellmate: "Wot?! Hey Psycho Slasher, looky here . . . . "

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Since they’re good liberals, nothing will happen to them, unlike the residents of southern Utah, who get prosecuted for collecting fossils and Indian arrowheads literally in their own backyards.

Bonus: a lot of them get a visit from the local SWAT team, who is happy to throw grenades through their windows, pull the front door off with a large armored truck, and put a foot on their neck face-down at gunpoint.

[Vince Ferrer]

CU has an impressive museum with a large fossil collection. It is well worth visiting, even though most people don’t even know about it.

[fremont_steve]

Damn - now the entire fossil collection is under scrutiny for whether they were collected with permits or not. Likely they’ll have to go re-bury them! Sucks to be them ;-)

[lurk]

All bones on Federal land belong to The Man. Utah is full of bones, but, no touchy.

[marktwain]

All bones on Federal land belong to The Man. Utah is full of bones, but, no touchy.

Not only that, but a lot of the most valuable fossils, once exposed to the weather, start deteriorating.

The federal government would rather have them destroyed than collected.

[caveat emptor]

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

The most important thing that's banned from being "collected" is coal, thanks to Slick Willie.

There are two major reserves of low sulfur coal, Grand Staircase-Escalante area and an area in Indonesia (owned by James Riady, major Slick [illegal] campaign donor).

Slick declared it as a NM as re-payment to Riady. Riady was found guilty of campaign finance violations and banned from returning to US by Bush admin, but was granted a waiver by OB's admin.

Might be a good idea for Romney to grant an exemption to mining, at least in the coal area. Don't know much else about the politics, except that Slick was afraid to go into Utah (announced it in Arizona) and the people of Utah were outraged over the loss of the economic benefits.

[TXnMA]

And now we know how they got it...

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks george76 for the topic, and to a FReeper to be remain nameless for the link. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks george76 for the topic, and to a FReeper to be remain nameless for the link. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[1010RD]

Good memory and keep it coming. We cannot let Billary back into the WH, so we’ll need all the reminding we can get.

[Condor51]

All your fossils are belong to us.

[null and void]

Professor: “...and disturbing the peace”

[Smokin' Joe]

The federal government would rather have them destroyed than collected.

Yep. The same erosional forces which expose them will destroy them.

Sadly, geologists of the future won't happen because they found a neat rock or a fossil on vacation and were inspired to learn more about it.

I thank God I grew up in the America I did--it was the fossils and 'neat' rocks I found as a child (on private land) which inspired me to take up what has been a rewarding profession.

[Smokin' Joe]

IIRC, there is another low-sulfur lignite deposit in the world—in Kosovo. Yep, the dog was being wagged there about the same time as the ESNM was created.