OR
the ocean-shore rule names agates by name, and Oregon is where the one-gallon limit gets tested
What you can legally keep from a beach
Two questions decide it, and most arguments about beachcombing are really one person answering the first while the other answers the second. Who manages this sand? And what is the thing in your hand? A pebble and a feather picked up on the same tideline are governed by different bodies of law, and the feather is the one that gets people in trouble.
What this page is, and is not. This page tells you which rulebook covers a beach and what that rulebook says. It does not tell you that any particular beach is open, because that is a question for whoever manages it — a park superintendent, a BLM field office, a ranger district, a district commander, a state parks office, or a landowner. Rules also move, and the wording here is what those pages said on the day each was read.
Question one: who manages this sand
There is no national beach rule. A mile of shoreline can pass from a national seashore to a state park to county sand to private land without a sign, and the answer to "may I keep this" changes at each line. These are the published rules for the bodies that manage the most American shoreline, quoted close and linked to the page each was read on.
| Who decides | What the rule says | Citation and source |
|---|---|---|
| National Park Service | A national park or seashore is closed to collecting unless the superintendent has opened it. The rule bars "possessing, destroying, injuring, defacing, removing, digging, or disturbing from its natural state" wildlife parts, plants, fossils, and mineral resources; a superintendent may then designate "certain fruits, berries, nuts, or unoccupied seashells which may be gathered by hand for personal use," and may cap the size, the quantity, and the place. | 36 CFR 2.1(a)(1), 2.1(c)(1)–(2) eCFR, 36 CFR 2.1 — Preservation of natural, cultural and archeological resources |
| A national seashore, in practice | Padre Island is what that designation looks like on the ground: "you are allowed to keep up to a one-gallon (3.79 liter) container filled with seashells and sea beans that you find," commercial collecting is prohibited, and "if a shell still has an animal living in it, please put it back where you found it." Everything else the park lists — wildlife parts, plants, fossils, cultural material, even sand — stays. | 36 CFR 2.1(c)(1), as the park applies it National Park Service — Padre Island National Seashore, Beachcombing |
| Bureau of Land Management shoreline | The opposite default: "except on developed recreation sites and areas, or where otherwise prohibited and posted," a person may take reasonable amounts of "rocks, mineral specimens, and semiprecious gemstones" for noncommercial purposes. The BLM puts a number on "reasonable" — up to 25 pounds a day, and no more than 250 pounds per person per year. | 43 CFR 8365.1-5(b)(2); BLM collecting guidance eCFR, 43 CFR 8365.1-5 — Property and resources Bureau of Land Management — Can I Keep This? |
| Petrified wood on BLM ground | Its own rule and its own numbers: 25 pounds in weight plus one piece per person per day, never more than 250 pounds in a calendar year, no pooling of quotas to lift a bigger piece, no power equipment, personal use only — it may not be sold or bartered to commercial dealers. A specimen over 250 pounds needs a permit. | 43 CFR 3622.2, 3622.4(a) eCFR, 43 CFR subpart 3622 — Free Use of Petrified Wood |
| National forest beaches and lakeshores | The regulation is blunt — damaging or "removing any natural feature or other property of the United States" is prohibited — while Forest Service policy separately treats casual rock and mineral collecting as an allowed recreational use. The two live together because the policy is what tells a district how to read the rule; a ranger district is the one to ask. | 36 CFR 261.9(a)–(b); Forest Service policy eCFR, 36 CFR 261.9 — Property USDA Forest Service — Mineral, Rock Collecting, and Metal Detecting on the National Forests |
| Army Corps of Engineers lake and river beaches | Written permission or nothing: removal or alteration of public property "including, but not limited to, developed facilities, natural formations, mineral deposits, historical and archaeological features, paleontological resources, boundary monumentation or markers and vegetative growth, is prohibited except when in accordance with written permission of the District Commander." | 36 CFR 327.14(a) eCFR, 36 CFR 327.14 — Public property |
| Oregon ocean shore (a state that wrote it down) | "Agates and other non-living items such as shells, stones, and fossils loose on the ground, in small quantities, defined as no more than a one-gallon volume container per person per day; up to three gallons per person per calendar year." Each person needs their own container and may not pool with anybody else. Driftwood runs separately at one cubic yard a day, hand-loaded only, nothing embedded in the beach or dune bank, and nothing from the Neskowin ghost forest. Above any of those limits the rule asks for a special-use permit. | OAR 736-021-0090(4)(a), (6) Oregon Secretary of State — OAR 736-021-0090, Cultural, Historic, Natural and Wildlife Resources |
| Michigan state-owned land | One annual number covers the whole state: it is unlawful to "remove from state-owned land more than the aggregate total weight of 25 pounds, per individual per year of any rock, mineral specimen (exclusive of any gold bearing material), or invertebrate fossil for individual or non-commercial hobby use." The parenthesis is doing real work — gold-bearing material sits outside the 25 pounds and under its own rules. | Mich. Admin. Code R 299.922(hh) Michigan DNR — Administrative Rules, Parks and Recreation Areas (R 299.922) |
Question two: what is actually in your hand
Four rules ignore the first question entirely. They follow the object, so they apply on a national seashore, a state park beach and a private stretch alike — and three of the four are the ones beachcombers find out about afterwards.
| What you picked up | What the rule says | Citation and source |
|---|---|---|
| A shell with an animal still in it | Not beachcombing at all — taking a living mollusk is shellfishing, and the licence, the season and the bag limit all come from a state fish and wildlife agency rather than from whoever owns the sand. Oregon's ocean-shore rule says so in its own text, handing fishing, shellfishing and other marine invertebrates to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The park-service version is shorter: put it back where you found it. | OAR 736-021-0090(8); NPS park guidance Oregon Secretary of State — OAR 736-021-0090(8) National Park Service — Padre Island National Seashore, Beachcombing |
| Bone, teeth, and ivory from a marine mammal | Allowed, and paperworked. "You may collect and keep any bones, teeth, or ivory from a non-ESA listed marine mammal found on a beach or land within one-quarter mile of an ocean, bay, or estuary. You may not collect parts from a carcass or parts with soft tissues attached." What you keep "must be identified and registered with the nearest NOAA Fisheries Regional Office," and may never be bought or sold. Ambergris is off the table entirely — it comes from an endangered whale. And NOAA draws the line collectors miss: "a fossil is not the same as a really old bone." | Marine Mammal Protection Act / Endangered Species Act NOAA Fisheries — What to Do With Body Parts of Endangered Species |
| A feather in the wrack line | The one most beachcombers get wrong. "No person may take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, purchase, or barter, any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs of such bird" without a permit — and a shed feather is a part. Finding it on the sand is not an exception. | 50 CFR 21.10 eCFR, 50 CFR 21.10 — General permit requirements (Migratory Bird Treaty Act) |
| Anything made by people and old enough | On federal or tribal land the age is the test: an "archaeological resource" is material remains of human life or activity "at least 100 years of age" that are of archaeological interest, and "no person may excavate, remove, damage, or otherwise alter or deface" one without a permit. A first conviction runs to a $10,000 fine and a year, more where the value and repair cost pass $500. | 43 CFR 7.3(a), 7.4(a), 7.4(c) eCFR, 43 CFR 7.3 — Definitions (ARPA) eCFR, 43 CFR 7.4 — Prohibited acts and criminal penalties |
The pattern worth carrying to any coast
- Park land is closed until somebody opens it; public land is open until somebody closes it. A national seashore starts from a prohibition and adds a written designation; BLM shoreline starts from permission and subtracts developed sites, wilderness and live claims. Knowing which direction the ground runs tells you what to look for on the sign.
- Where a state bothered to write a number down, it is small and it is annual. Oregon: a one-gallon container a day, three gallons a year. Michigan: 25 pounds a year across all state-owned land. The BLM: 25 pounds a day, 250 a year. Nobody's limit is measured in bucket-loads.
- Alive is a different question from loose. Every rule above is about non-living things lying on the ground. The moment something is alive — an occupied shell, a sand dollar still moving, seaweed with a holdfast — it belongs to a fish and wildlife agency and a licence, not to a beach rule.
- Two federal lines run under all of it. Marine mammal parts and anything made by people at least a century ago sit outside whatever the land manager allows, and neither cares that you found it on the surface.
What that means for rockhounding a shoreline
The limits above are written for people picking up rocks, which is why the numbers name agates and petrified wood specifically. If the beach in question is one you were hoping to hunt, the state and material pages carry what the historic record says is there and every legal place this directory can show you — including the fee-dig finder, which lists only sites with an official page behind them.
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MI
one 25-pound year covers every acre of Michigan's state-owned land
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WA
the same beaches, under a different set of managers
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CA
a coast where the manager changes every few miles
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OR
petrified wood carries its own federal quota, and it does wash up
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WA
the state stone, and the reason the quota is worth knowing
Panning a beach is its own question with its own answers — Oregon's ocean-shore rule sets a separate sand quota and a hand-tools-only limit for recreational prospecting, and Michigan writes gold-bearing material out of its 25-pound cap. The designated panning areas are listed by state, each one linked to the agency page that opened it.
Questions beachcombers ask
Can I take shells home from the beach?
It depends on the beach, and the answer flips between neighbouring stretches of the same coast. In a national park or seashore, collecting is prohibited unless the superintendent has written a determination opening it — Padre Island opens seashells and sea beans up to a one-gallon container per person and closes everything else. On BLM shoreline the default runs the other way: reasonable amounts of rocks, mineral specimens and semiprecious gemstones for noncommercial use, except at developed recreation sites. Oregon caps the whole coast at a one-gallon container per person per day. And an occupied shell is never beachcombing — a living mollusk is shellfishing, and a state fish and wildlife agency decides that one.
Is it illegal to take driftwood off a beach?
Often, and the rules are more specific than people expect. On Army Corps ground, removing a natural formation needs the District Commander's written permission. Oregon allows driftwood on the ocean shore — up to one cubic yard per person per day and three cords a year — but only wood a person can load by hand, never wood embedded in the beach or in a dune bank, and never from the ancient stumps of the Neskowin ghost forest. A national forest regulation prohibits removing any natural feature outright.
Can I keep a whale bone or a shark tooth I found?
A shark tooth is a fossil and is not covered by the marine mammal rules. A whale bone is. NOAA Fisheries allows you to collect bones, teeth or ivory from a marine mammal that is not listed under the Endangered Species Act, found on a beach or within a quarter mile of an ocean, bay or estuary — but not from a carcass, not with soft tissue attached, and what you keep must be identified and registered with the nearest NOAA Fisheries Regional Office and may never be sold. Ambergris is off the table because it comes from an endangered whale. NOAA draws the line collectors miss: a fossil is not the same as a really old bone.
What about a feather, or an old bottle?
The feather is the surprise. Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act rules, no person may possess any migratory bird or the parts, nests or eggs of one without a permit, and a shed feather is a part — finding it on the sand is not an exception. The bottle depends on its age and the ground: on federal or tribal land anything at least 100 years old that is of archaeological interest is an archaeological resource, and removing one without a permit is a federal offence carrying a fine and jail time.
Does this page tell me a specific beach is open?
This page tells you which rulebook covers a beach and what that rulebook says. It does not tell you that any particular beach is open, because that is a question for whoever manages it — a park superintendent, a BLM field office, a ranger district, a district commander, a state parks office, or a landowner. Rules also move, and the wording here is what those pages said on the day each was read.
If you are bringing a detector
A metal detector changes the answer rather than adding to it: the park service prohibits even carrying an assembled one, the Corps allows them on designated beaches only, and two of the states above license the activity separately from collecting. The metal-detecting rules are set out the same way, by who manages the ground.