sangamon, I can understand someone sincere intent of making a web-site like that. And I can understand someone else's fear or passing on links like that. But the problem is, well, YES, there are isolated incidents of someone getting "roughed up" for digging that wheat penny in a national forest (or the 7 year old kid diggin for matchbox car toys, or any other such silly isolated incident alleged in that link). SO TOO is a motorist roughed up, jailed, etc... now and then for a simple tail light infraction by an over-zealous cop. Will that stop you from driving?
What happens is .... EVEN if it is only one example of ONE city or fed park or whatever, where someone actually gave a durn and even noticed or paid attention to the geeky md'r, what happens is, that in this wonderful information age of the internet, those exceptions get posted, and posted, and posted again and again, and pretty soon, everyone thinks they therefore "need permission" for the most innocuous of public city schools, sandboxes, etc.... Afterall they reason: after reading a link like that, "better safe than sorry", right? But a curious thing starts happening then: When people start showing up at bureaucrat's offices asking "can I metal detect" (or even sillier "safe" things like asking some bureaucrat to sign permission slips, etc...), then you start getting incidents of the answer "no", where in fact, NO ONE REALLY EVER CARED before. I mean, what do you think that desk-bound bureaucrat's easy answer is? It's almost like they invent a law or rule to "address your pressing issue".
Lest you think I'm making this up, take the case of Utah's state park system: Up till a number of years ago, the issue of metal detecting was not addressed in their state park system's rules. Oh sure, something might have been morphed to apply (like "don't disturb the vegetation" or whatever), but otherwise, it was basically silent on the issue. However, a few years ago, lo & behold, specific wording actually spelling out metal detecting got on the books, to disallow it. What was interesting is that in the very text around this new rule, they give the reason for this clarification: "Due to repeated inquiries about the legality of metal detecting, it has been determined that .... " blah blah blah. So you see how these skittish people (no doubt reading links like the one you give), cower in fear thinking "better ask permission, better check, etc..."
The best advice I can give for someone who's not sure, is NOT to approach it from a "permission" perspective (Ie.: "can I metal detect here?"). That just gives someone the opportunity to say "no, just because I said so, and/or "I don't think it's a good idea" (afterall, they probably imagine geeks with shovels). Instead, if you are in doubt, look it up yourself. Rules are usually written at the park entrance, on pamphlets at the check-in-booth, or on a city, county, or state web-site. If it's silent on the issue, then GO.
