CompuServe Messages

Lanny, Your points are well taken. What good does it do a geologist to leave an outcrop untouched so that delicate minerals within are lost to weathering each year? (That's not really a guestion, people.) What difference does it make if rocks are broken off an outcrop by mere amateur rockhounds or if they fall off from the effects of freezing ground water, etc. Your point about rock collectors serving the community as teachers is a good advocacy rejoinder to the nature uber alles folk. Most people are not going into the field to collect and so they learn from museums and elsewhere. These days, however, many museums have cut back severely on mineral displays. Snail darters get much higher billing at museums of natural history. Furthermore, museums rarely have micromineral displays. (The Carnegie's is pretty feeble, and it's the exception that proves the rule.) Amateur mineral collectors thus fill a big void. When I set up a scope at our town's local science fair, the exhibit generated a lot of interest. I have routinely taken local cub scout dens on collecting trips, and I have given presentations to them on basic geology and mineralogy. We who collect ought to be quite outspoken against this insanity that suggests that collecting is improper. Most minerals can't be appreciated in the form in which they are found in the field. Usually, excavation, removal, cleaning, trimming, mounting, etc., are necessary to give the armchair naturalist the thrill of seeing a well-formed mineral specimen. Doug, sometimes you hear a suggestion that is so perverse, that you know it's wrong even before you can articulate all the reasons. This one is off the wall, and it scares me that people would take it seriously. The debate reminds me of a fine geologist at Franklin and Marshall (who often leads field trips in SE Pennsylvania) who pointed out that the earth feels no pain when we excavate a quarry. The quarry is quickly (in geologic time) assimilated into the earth's superficial features, and while it is visible, often provides tremendous insights into the geology, stratigraphy, and mineralogy of the earth. The point is that commercial exploitation of the earth is not inconsistent with advancing our understanding of earth science. Amateur mineral or fossil collecting is not inconsistent with preserving wildlife or important geologic features, whether on private or public land. Nathan