Meanwhile, some academicians and scientists push for more stringent curbs, whether the fossils are obtained from public or private property. These are naturally occurring, nonrenewable scientific and educational resources. They have an important story to be told, and unfortunately we're seeing parts of that story, like chapters in a book, disappearing. Wherever they are found, fossils can bring in big bucks. A lot of the big-money items appear to be going overseas. . . .
Federal agencies have but a handful of law enforcement officers to patrol millions of acres.
In Wyoming, for example, the Bureau of Land Management oversees about 18 million acres. Its law enforcement staff consists of three special agents and three uniformed rangers with a broad range of duties. Two U.S. Forest Service law enforcement rangers with the National Forest system in Nebraska, also with an array of duties, patrol a million acres in Nebraska and South Dakota. Terri Liestman, a Forest Service official in Denver, has long pushed for better management of fossil resources on public lands, including the prevention of theft. The thefts, Ms. Liestman said, apparently continue.