Legal compliance resources for natural science collections

[Lena Hernandez]

Can anyone recommend some resources for how to apply  laws such as the Lacey Act or Endangered Species Act to museum collections. I recently began tackling the problem of digitizing our Natural Science collection and in doing so realized that many of the specimens in our collection need permitting. We may or may not have had the permits in the past (the records for that collection are a mess). Some of them may be covered under the permits we already have for our Living collection, but some will definitely need more.

Any reading suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Sharon McCullar]

I had good results from contacting our state Department of Natural Resources.  I found the correct person by asking the Ranger/Naturalist at a nearby state park for assistance.  That person helped evaluate our current permits and what we would need in light of our collecting goals.  We were referred to a Federal Fish and Wildlife Services representative who was then very helpful in figuring out what permits we had, what we needed to add and the logistics of properly collecting and reporting newly acquired specimens.  We ended up with an updated collection procedure, renewed Federal and Michigan Scientific collectors and possession permits.    Our Federal Eagle possession permit is permanent but I got confirmation of that during this process as well.  Migratory birds, animals and birds on the endangered species lists make it very important to have the correct, up to date permits.  We are not a very active collecting institution so we just got the scientific collection, salvage and possession permits.  If you are actively collecting there are other permits needed.  I would start with a state park naturalists and work up from there.

Annual cost to renew the permits for us is about 50 – 75 dollars, a couple are three year renewals and one is a free state permit.

Good luck,

Sharon McCullar

[Lena Hernandez]

Thanks! In light of the advice I’ve gotten, here and elsewhere, I have bitten the bullet and contacted the Florida FWC. I figure I’ll start with the local folks and move on to the federal once I am done.

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