Quote
Dave
This is not good news to everyone. Now many popular rock/mineral collecting sites are now off limits. Some of the new rules are amazingly stupid. One is that if you happen across a pretty rock then you can pick it up and keep it. If you are out looking for rocks to collect, you can't pick up any or take any with you.
It depends on who is in charge. My understanding is that of these three new national monuments, only one will be administered by NPS. Collecting is still allowed in national monuments under Forest Service or BLM administration. I remember on my trip to SEKI, seeing people collecting cones, which was legal in Sequoia National Forest - even in the areas that were designated as Giant Sequoia National Monument.
This release gets into more specifics of who is in charge of what. It specifically mentions hunting, but not for Castle Mountains.
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2016/02/0043.xml&contentidonly=truehttps://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/California%20Monuments%20Q%20and%20A.pdf