Actually, it's no big deal, despite what it is.
A cow chip, for example, after having been out in the Nebraska sun for a summer, and then out in the Nebraska snow for a winter, looks like a piece of dried driftwood one finds on a sea-shore.
Some Nebraskans, but not franksolich who's a nice guy, get a great deal of merriment out of encouraging primitives from blue states, curious about what something is, to pick it up and examine it.
After about a year, it's harmless of course, sterile as a hospital operating room, but it's just not a nice thing to do, even to primitives from blue states.