When we go out into the world, there is a natural impulse to bring home a souvenir. Many of us collect postcards, pressed souvenir pennies or other trinkets. We try to avoid bigger items like t-shirts, which always seem like a good idea but often don’t get worn once we get home. Small or free souvenirs are frequently the ones we treasure the most.
While we love free souvenirs, one thing you can’t take home with you is anything natural from public land. Picking flowers on public land can be a federal offense. Whether to put them in a vase or dry them in a book, it could cost you up to $250 in fines.
Kyle Patterson with Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado said, “Over four million visitors come to Rocky each year. If everyone picked a flower in the park, there would not be any flowers left for others to enjoy.”
Wildflowers feed many animals. The National Park Service’s Code of Federal Regulations ensures the “preservation of natural, cultural and archaeological resources.” It states that “possessing, destroying, injuring, defacing, removing, digging or disturbing from its natural state — plants or the parts or products thereof” is prohibited.
President Woodrow Wilson signed the act in 1916 to ensure the wildflowers would seed and keep the landscape beautiful for the future. The one thing you can take is pictures. Take a ton of photos to remember your trip to the parks.
Removing plants from botanical gardens is also prohibited. That is to be expected. They have been carefully raised. You might not expect you also can’t pick wildflowers in California, Colorado, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia or Wisconsin. It’s a misdemeanor with a fine. Other states have laws about picking them off the side of the road versus in town parks or local land. Knowing the laws is essential so you don’t get hit with a hefty fine.
It’s always illegal to pick endangered, protected plants and flowers. And it’s illegal to pick flowers from the side of the road if you have to stop your car in a dangerous way.
Wildflowers are annuals. That means they only grow from seeds they spread. If you remove them from nature, they aren’t just gone for the season. They are gone forever.
