What's the legality behind collecting samples from national

>>2449707
It's fine so long as you're not publishing your findings or making money. In those cases you'd need a permit.

You're also not allowed to take samples of most vertebrates or trees without the proper license (fishing, hunting, timber, etc). Also you're not allowed to remove or disturb artifacts or vertebrate fossils.

Finally you're not allowed to cause "significant" disturbance of the environment without doing NEPA paperwork, posting at least a million dollar bond, and getting permission. Your best bet to avoid this is to make sure nobody can tell that you took anything.

In your case the only potential problem I might see is if you found something really exciting, then you wouldn't be able to publish it until after you got a research permit and repeated the find. But that's extremely unlikely to happen.

>>2449707
You can of course just call up your local ranger district office and ask them. They will tell you if it's ok and perhaps tell you where to look.

>>2449741
>>2449742
Thanks for the solid advice anons. I'm not planning on taking anymore than a few jam jars worth of water and small plant matter, so I couldn't imagine it'd be considered anything near a significant disturbance.

Is it possible for an individual to even get a research permit? How much would that cost? I don't expect to find anything ground breaking, but if I do I suppose I could just consult with the local university and park service.