Section 4190.101 Purpose of Rules

Section 4190

Section 4190.101  Purpose of

Rules

This Part implements the

provisions and intent of the Archeological and Paleontological Resources

Protection Act [20 ILCS 3435].  The State reserves to itself the exclusive

right to control archaeological and significant paleontological resources on

public lands in order to protect and preserve scientific and cultural

information, artifacts, and materials.  As part of that process, this Part

mandates the maintenance of a State site file containing all known

archaeological and significant paleontological resource locations and set

standards for professional archaeologists and paleontologists working on public

lands within the State of Illinois.  Furthermore, it is the purpose of this

Part to encourage the preservation and protection of archaeological and paleontological

resources on both private and public lands and to discourage their exploitation

and destruction by vandalism, looting, commercial development, and

construction.  Publicly-owned resources should be considered as scientific and

educational preserves that are held in trust for future generations and will be

given the highest level of preservation and protection from both planned and

unplanned disturbances.  This Part is not intended to discourage collection of

common invertebrate and/or plant fossils by educational groups, the scientific

community, and the public where not otherwise prohibited. Invertebrate fossils

are very common in the rocks of Illinois. This Part is intended for

archaeological resources, significant paleontological resources, and extremely

significant invertebrate and plant fossil localities on public lands.