Rules govern use
of metal detectors

Answer: There are prohibitions on state and federal properties, but not in city parks.

"It is permissible to use hand-held metal detectors in our parks and beaches," said Dana Takahara-Dias, deputy director of the city Department of Parks and Recreation.

However, while digging is allowed at city beaches, it's not allowed in the parks, she cautioned.

At the other extreme, metal detectors are not allowed to be used in any national park site in the Pacific, as a way of protecting natural and cultural resources, said Frank Hays, Pacific Area director for the National Park Service.

In fact, it appears all federal lands are off limits to metal "detectorists," according to a check of various Web sites.

As for state lands, it depends on where you are.

In state parks, metal detectors are prohibited except on sandy beach areas, said Daniel Quinn, state parks administrator with the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The reason is to prevent people from willy-nilly digging up the parks, "since we have cultural resources in many of the state park areas, but not to prevent hobbyists from looking around for yesterday's quarters and potential fun things," Quinn explained.

Chapter 13-146-32(h) of the Hawaii Administrative Rules, relating to state parks, specifically states, "No person shall possess or use a mineral or metal detector, magnetometer or other metal detecting device except on sand areas of beaches."

There is nothing specifically prohibiting someone from using a metal detector to find a lost object, say a wedding ring, in forestry and wildlife areas, but don't expect to casually go there to look for buried treasure.

"We don't want people out there disturbing forest reserves," said Paul Conry, DLNR's administrator of forestry and wildlife.

"There's an entire list of things that you can't do," he said, such as not collecting vegetation, flowers or wildlife, without a permit.

"If someone's out there looking for their ring -- they dropped it and lost it -- there's nothing wrong with that," Conry said. "But we wouldn't want them plowing out areas ... disturbing the land in any way."

Meanwhile, unencumbered state lands -- lands not currently being leased for anything or designated for a specific purpose -- are basically off limits from any kind of scavenging.

You would need a "right-of-entry permit" from the Land Division, but that permit would not be granted for "any kind of economic use," including looking for coins, said DLNR spokeswoman Deborah Ward.

She also pointed out administrative rules dealing with lost-and-found articles found on unencumbered land requires anyone finding an item to turn it in to police.

If no one claims the item within a set time, then the finder becomes keeper.

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