Don’t pick the wildflowers in Rocky Mountain National Park, it’s illegal

DENVER ( KDVR ) — Rocky Mountain National Park is home to over 900 wildflower species. While it may seem like an innocent act to pick a wildflower while on a hike, it’s actually considered a federal offense and could cost you hundreds of dollars.

According to Kyle Patterson with Rocky Mountain National Park, there is currently a wide variety of wildflowers in bloom in the montane, subalpine and alpine ecosystems. From columbines to fairy slippers to the prickly pear, wildflowers will grow all over the park — even at 10,000 feet.

Federal law bans the picking of wildflowers

While it might seem easy to just pluck one of the plants and take it home as a souvenir, picking wildflowers on national park property is a huge offense.

The National Park Service was created to preserve and protect the natural and cultural resources of its parks for future generations. So, this means everything on national park property is protected federally, including flora.

The Code of Federal Regulations under the National Park Service, Department of Interior chapter has made the preservation of natural, cultural and archaeological resources a federal law.

Within that law, it says “Possessing, destroying, injuring, defacing, removing, digging, or disturbing from its natural state — plants or the parts or products thereof,” is prohibited.

Depending on the circumstances, Patterson said picking an innocent wildflower could cost you up to $250 in fines.

Is picking just one wildflower really that bad?

While thousands of wildflowers bloom each year in Rocky Mountain National Park, the tiny flora are a critical part of the ecosystem.

According to Patterson, the wildflowers provide food for bees, butterflies, mule deer, marmots and pika.

Picking one wildflower might not seem like it will impact an entire ecosystem, but the act can have a domino effect.

“Another part of our mission is to protect the park in a way that what you see today, will look similar to the landscape you will see in the future. 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. This would dramatically change the landscape for future visitors,” said Patterson.

If you want to keep that $250 in your wallet, be sure to snap some photos of the stunning wildflowers but leave them where they are.

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