Lots of things to consider in this topic:
1. The easiest thing for any govt agency to do is to ban detecting rather than try to understand it or embrace it
2. Therefore, most dedicated md'ers try to stay invisible, not always out of greed (although there is that,) but for fear that more publicity will inevitably mean more opposition. (EG, a couple of weeks ago my buddy and I detecting a park and were SCREAMED at by a woman who was walking her dog. I tried to reassure her that we were ok, but she wouldn't hear it, then my buddy, who has a lot shorter fuse than I do, got snarky with her. I feared she'd raise the stakes somehow, but fortunately she didn't and we were left alone the rest of the day except by interested passersby.) When we left the park, we did indeed see a sign that said, "Removal of artifacts prohibited." The definition of "artifact," however, remains unclear. We have a hard time believing the word applies to ten year old clad dimes and pennies, or even to coins older than that, which we did not find.
3. Ethical md'ers can indeed be really helpful in learning the stories of places, if people will learn to accept and include us.
4. If you run into archaeologists who have positive attitudes towards detecting, please send them to Oregon.
5. My brother is a high-ranking official in the Historical Commission of another state. I see him only a couple times a year, but when we do see each other, we generally do not discuss my hobby, as it leads to nothing but arguments. I think he honestly believes that sooner or later, archaeologists will go over every square inch of his state, so he wants nothing found until they do. Given his limited budget, that would take thousands of years, but he genuinely seems to believe that it would be better for an archaeologist in 3015 to find that little pocket spill of coins than it is if I find them tomorrow.
Obviously there are those detectorists who would plunder important sites if they found them first, and based on some of the things I've seen posted in the "finds" forum, this is a legitimate concern. However, if we as ethical detectorists can do a better job of publicizing our contributions to the fields of archaeology and history, and of policing our own hobby and educating one another, perhaps the day will come when we will be not only accepted, but welcomed. As one who leaves every area cleaner than how I found it, I can tell you that from time to time I join the "haters" in being disgusted by the carelessness and thoughtlessness of those who came before me. All I can do is try to clean up their messes and try to be a good ambassador for the hobby to all who come my way. I'm sorry about the lady who felt it was necessary to scream. If she would have been acting a little more sanely, maybe we could have had a productive discussion. However, I weighed her attitude and behavior and determined it wouldn't be worth the time to try to talk to her. She was just too upset or crazy. That's too bad, because our hobby has an opponent and all we probably did was make things worse. We have to believe that we're making lots more positive contacts than negative, though, by talking to the others who came by, and we hope that everyone takes the time to have friendly exchanges with folks so they see that what we're doing is not bad or harmful in any way.
