Arizona · expansion
Arizona BLM collecting basics
Ordinary Arizona BLM still starts from federal casual use: personal, hand tools, no sale, and the typical 25 pounds a day plus one piece / 250 pounds a year reading of reasonable amounts. Then you subtract everything that is not ordinary BLM. A “public desert” photo is not permission.
What is not BLM
- Arizona State Trust Land. Managed by the Arizona State Land Department to earn money for schools, closer to Utah SITLA than to BLM. Recreational use generally needs a permit, and collecting is not included just because you bought access. Read the current permit before you pick anything up.
- National parks and most monuments. Grand Canyon, Saguaro, Petrified Forest — closed. Petrified wood inside the park is the example people still get wrong.
- Tribal land. Closed unless that tribe allows it.
- Military ranges and wildlife refuges. Not a rockhounding overlook.
- Forest Service. A different memo, same as Dixie vs BLM.
Same checklist
- Owner / agency layer. Click the parcel.
- Monuments, ACECs, wilderness.
- National parks: no.
- Vertebrate fossils and artifacts: no.
- Active claims: MLRS.
- Paid digs and private ranches: pay or stay out. Fee sites are not the BLM cap.
No pin lists on this page. Status first. The BLM Arizona state office and the local field office are the check when the layer is ambiguous. Utah comparison: is rockhounding legal in Utah.
Informational only — not legal advice. Confirm current Arizona BLM and State Land Department rules for the parcel you are standing on.