Re: "Cleaning Up the Burke"

[Phil Bigelow <bigelowp@juno.com>]

On Wed, 03 May 2006 23:52:34 +0000 Dinosaur World <dinoworld@msn.com>
writes:
> Is there any hope of bringing the scientific community and the 
> private 
> collectors to work together in some way? It seems to me that neither 
> side 
> wants to deal with the other, and so the public is the big looser in 
> these 
> new "Bone Wars".
> Have there been any steps taken to work with each other?


I'm getting a tension headache.  First, let's be clear.  There are THREE
sides to this issue, not two sides.

The only well-organized group in the U.S. representing the professional
vertebrate paleontology community is the Society of Vertebrate
Paleontology (SVP).  The vocal opposition to the SVP are the commercial
collectors.  A third category, the amateurs, is stuck in the middle of
this mess (worse, the third category largely has no coordinated voice on
this matter).

In its official proclamations, SVP generously acknowledges the admirable
contributions of amateurs in the advancement of paleontology.  But in
other, more politically/regulatory-oriented matters, SVP and its
political cohorts get lazy and tend to lump amateurs in with commercial
collectors.  In fairness to this organization, SVP is only supporting the
current status quo; they are NOT proposing that new access restrictions
be placed on citizens (small miracle, there).

SVP's view of commercial collectors seems to be very well defined and
unambiguous (and I generally agree with their assessment of that group,
and of the harm that commercial collectors can do to science).  But SVP's
view of amateur collectors tends to be somewhat cryptic and at times even
downright condescending.

It is ironic that a substantial number of SVP members are amateurs.  But
on its opening web page, SVP lumps amateurs in with "others interested in
VP".

<pb> (reaching for an aspirin)
--