The Travel Channel used to air a show about hobbies.  The hostess would travel around the country participating in things such as dinosaur digs.  A couple of years ago, the hostess went bottle hunting with a guy who does that as his hobby.  I think it was in California.  She kept going on about how exciting it was to wait with baited breath as the guy dug around backyards to find bottles.  While digging, he told her that old maps (such as Sanborns) were perfect for finding where to dig.  

During this show, he had a friend come out and help him dig up a city sidewalk.  I don't know if the city slapped any fines or penalties on him for that (not surprisingly, no mention of fines for digging up city property was made during the show).  Unfortunately for archaeology, people can do what they wish with their own property, even if it's letting a TV crew film someone digging solely for "stuff."  However, if publicly owned property (such as that sidewalk in the hobby show episode) is affected, then heavy fines for damage and for repairs (as well as fines under any other local ordinances) could possibly be a way to discourage this activity not only for reality TV but in general.