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What kind of mementos am I allowed to collect from State and National parks in small quantities, if any? I am especially wondering about:
Is it ever OK to take something living to plant at home, like cactus leaves?
The old advice is to "Take nothing but pictures, and leave nothing but footprints".
Almost any amount of memento-taking is going to lead to some kind of impact in anything but the most isolated of areas.
The details of what is and isn't legal are going to vary with the exact area you're in -in the US, Wilderness Areas, a national forests, Bureau of Land Management's land, and state forests, all have different governing bodies and different sets of rules. Even different national parks are allowed to set their own rules. But I think they all prohibit you from taking mementos.
And, besides all that, I find that in this age of social networking and photo sharing sites, a handful of good pictures can capture the experiences of my trips better than physical stuff does, although that's purely subjective.
Generally speaking in the US, you can collect as much as you want from the gift shops.
Otherwise, everything else is strictly forbidden.
Generally in a national part, national monument, or official wilderness area in the US, don't take anything. These areas are managed with preservation being a high or the highest goal. We simply can't have every human on earth take even a small rock. All parts of the environment are connected. No matter how harmless or inconsequential you think some item it, it is meaningful and important to some critter or to the ecosystem as a whole in large enough quantities.
The rules are different in national forests, which are public resources, although they must be used in a sustainable way. Some forests allow you to cut a certain amount of firewood, for example, during some season. Lots of forests allow hunting. There are areas where you are allowed to collect a certain type of rock. Some forest allow cutting of christmas trees. All these activities are regulated and usually limited. Hunting is only allowed at certain times and for certains species. The rock collecting is limited to some number or weight.
I don't think there is anything you are allowed to collect accross all the forests all the time. Each forest has their own rules, based on their own management plan. The bottom line is, assume you can't collect anything in a national forest unless you have asked and know exactly what can be collected under what conditions. A formal permit may be required, which may cost money. Penalties for violation can be steep.
One of my favorite things to collect from National Parks is a stamp for my park passport. There are cancellation stamps in many national parks and sets of full-color stamps you can buy at the gift shop.
And please take the other answers to heart. Millions of us enjoy the parks system every year.
I have a lot of experience with the federal lands, and the rules are pretty much the same between agencies, whether the Bureau of Land Management or the National Park Service or the US Forest Service.
The rule is: don't remove anything. There are some serious consequences, even a felony in some cases.
I agree with DavidR, in that in this digital era, many things are shared better via video or photograph, as it can be more widely shared.
This may seem obvious, but this is for the collective good. Simply put, if we all took a flower, there wouldn't be any or a few flowers. I realize sounds overly simple, but the logic applies.
Not sure about state lands, but I'm sure similar laws apply.
It's always okay to take away trash!
I'm not just being tongue in cheek here. Many US National Parks (and other protected areas) have more latitude for beach-combing; manmade items like sea-glass may be considered trash / non-natural additions and be fair game to remove. Again, you'll want to note the specific regulations for the Park you're in; and of course be attentive to man-made items that could be artifacts and to items that might have living creatures attached to them.
Legally the answer is "nothing" in the National Parks of Canada. I think the US is similar.
Ethically the best touchstone is the Kantian ethic: What would be the result of everyone doing this? As part of that, examine the renewal time, and the numbers of the thing in question and the number of visitors.
E.g. Taking the pine cone unless the pine is uncommon seems to me to be fine. A cone on the ground has already dispersed it's seeds. A cone is a byproduct. I'm removing a small amount of carbon from the environment. If campfires are allowed in an area, then removing a cone is not unreasonable. I would apply this to common shells on the beach too. They will soon be ground to dust.
I have several fossils that have come from our provincial forests. Mountain slopes where the fossil is common, or on eroding river banks. Tehir lifespan is short, once exposed.
Taking seeds of wildflowers again is fine -- my rule of thumb is to collect seeds from one plant in a clump of 100 plants, and to do so only a hundred yards from any trail. Even that would depend on it being a moderately low use area.
Removal of live plants is rarely successful, unless you have done your homework, understand their environment, and already have a created one back at the lab. This may be appropriate if you are a serious botanist trying to establish a breeding population of a plant. Again -- way off the beaten track, and never more than 1% of the visible population from wehre you stand.
That said, I have successfully transplanted various alpine plants, and boreal forest plants into my garden. In each case the source was NOT in a park, but either in a recreation area, provincial forest, or unincorporated district (read: wilderness) In each of the alpine plants cases, I was over a mile from the nearest trail, and harvested from an abundant colony. In the boreal case I was some 120 km from the nearest road, in country where, when forced to portage, we had to start by flagging and cutting a trail. Most people do not understand how untraveled Canada is.
A twig, a pebble, I don't see the problem, but I don't see the point either.
In response to comments:
Moving organic matter. High probability? No. Possible? yes. And the consequences of moving it are serious -- see dutch elm disease and emerald ash borer for examples.
National Parks & legality. Sure it's illegal. My point is that there has to be a robust population to enable sampling. If the legality bothers you, move over the the adjacent national forest and find the same environment there and look for your critter.
Case in point: One of the lady slipper orchids is a rare plant, with a lovely purple flower. One time on a rock in Northern Saskatchewan we stopped for lunch with an acre of these so densely packed that you couldn't sit down without squishing them. I did not collect a plant, as they don't travel well, and it was a week to civilization. I did take some soil from the vicinity of the ones that got stepped on, and mixed it into the duff where forest met grassland it on the edge of my woods. 8 years later I had a small colony of orchids.
I wouldn't ahve done even that had I been on one of the standard routes in Northern Saskatchewan. Routes like the Churchill river get a few dozen or so groups per year. But routes like the Mujatik, Brustad, or MacFarlane likely don't get more than a few groups per decade. (When we researched the MacFarlane we were unable to find logs or reports of anyone who had done the top third of it, a report of the Canadian Geological Survey of it having been done in the 1930's for the middle third and a log of someone 20 years prior who had done the bottom quarter. Asside from that, there as only a mention in J. B. Tyrell's book on Lake Athabasca that mentioned that this was preferred by the local natives as a route to get to what is now Fort McMurray, as it was only a few dozen portages, instead of fighting the current of the Athabasca river for a few weeks)
In Rock Hound State Park near Deming, Luna County, South-Western New Mexico, USA, you are allowed to collect rocks. This is highly unusual. I read it in various sources. The state park website seems very limited, but from the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources:
It was established in 1966 as the first park in the United States that allowed collecting of rocks and minerals for personal use. Each visitor is allowed to collect as much as 15 lb (6.8 kg) of rocks and minerals from the 1,100-acre (4.45 km²) park; mineral dealers are not allowed to collect for sale.
So, if your ways ever pass through southern New Mexico (and why wouldn't they?), feel free to fill your backpack with small rocks at Rock Hound State Park.
Most answers curiously omit a very dangerous reason why removing anything should be illegal, unless designated "affirmative" (that is, you are explicitly given permission to take away). You don't mention where you intend to take your mementos, and dangers lurk here as well.
All rocks, animal parts, wood, seeds, flowers, food, etc contain things local to the environment.
Removing an item can have the deleterious effect of defacing the area from which you take things. Burial sites may contain items that appear to any, other than archaeologists, as "just a stone". You can alter the movement of streams and other waterways, damage an animal/bird/reptile habitat. As mentioned, if everyone took a flower or a rock, then eventually, the area would be scavenged into oblivion.
Importing an item to your own area can have the deleterious effect of bringing in blight/disease, or an invasive species (whether insect, microbial, or plant). In many of the scout camps we go to, there are strict rules that require us to use only local wood for burning - we are forbidden from using wood we bring from elsewhere, including that which we bought from a supermarket. We either use what we find on the ground, or, as in many camps, the forester will cut wood for us and we can use that. In New York, you may not bring in wood from further than 50 miles, and if you bring in any wood at all (within 50 miles), you must provide source documentation.
Forests (Department of Environmental Conservation)
There's even a quarantine:
EAB Regulations and Quarantines (Department of Environmental Conservation)
Just the mere attempt to get at artifacts - even pictures! - can deface an area that is historically or ecologically important or sensitive. Human presence near some wildlife sites can have negative effects, like bird nests which can cause birds to abandon eggs. Turtle and other reptile eggs can be destroyed. Damage to a beaver dam can have downstream effects.
And sometimes, merely touching things can be dangerous, particularly with animal parts. Here, rabies, parasites, anthrax, and other diseases are high-risk to human interaction. So, leave the antlers, skulls, snake heads, and turtle shells alone.
Oh, and animals? Good luck trying to take a dead mountain lion or eagle you find on a trail head and stuff it. Taxidermists are forbidden by law to process a protected animal - even if you find it already dead. There's permits, paper work, red tape, and bureaucracy that are required to do this.
Taxidermists & Federal Law (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
You specifically mention taking a live plant and replanting it at home. You may be allowed to remove from one area, but be prohibited from importing it to another. In fact, transport across country boundaries is generally illegal. It's not unusual to try to take home some plant or animal product you purchased at a gift shop - like a sea shell, starfish, pine cone, snake head, or some other animal or plant by-product, only to be told by customs you cannot bring it on the plane or boat. Even some foods are generally illegal to take across borders. Food which is processed into oblivion - like soda or milk - is usually okay. Or canned foods. But raw food? Or dried jerky or grain? Conch shells from Barbados? Dried starfish from Australia? Sand dollars from Martinique? Or a bottle of wine with a dead snake in it from Vietnam? Or that dried corn husk from Mexico to make tamales? It all could be confiscated, even if you purchased it from a super market or gift shop.
Conversely, you may be encouraged to take (or rather, destroy) things, but would generally be prohibited from taking anywhere else. Kudzu is an infamous example, such as in South Carolina where at one point a few years back the governor declared war on the invasive plant. All culling by any means available was encouraged. So you were allow to kill/destroy as much of it as you find, you just aren't allowed to bring it anywhere - because those places likely have kudzu infestations themselves.
And as to food: Sometimes, it's not about the danger to the environment, or to yourself or others. Sometimes, it's about the damage to corporations. Yep: Try going to a foreign country and bring in a food product (like seeds) which are not genetically engineered to produce fruit without seeds. Monsanto spent billions convincing us that seedless watermelons are better because, well, who wants to eat seeds?? - when the real issue is they want you to be buying their seeds year after year. Seeds will be confiscated at customs checkpoints.
Along the lines of damage to corporate bottom lines, there's also the damage to government bottom lines, too. Sure, alcohol is not a memento you're going to find. But tobacco leaves? Our car got searched because a dog hit on tobacco. We were allowed to keep the cigarettes because the woman proved she bought them legally. But the customs officer (or whatever they're called when they're on the reservations) told us that all tobacco products are subject to confiscation if we can't prove we paid tax on it. And then there's the drug plants, like cocoa, marijuana, poppies, and various mushrooms, which I'm sure you didn't intend to include as mementos, but they nevertheless fall into your category of taking live plants and transporting them somewhere else.
In the end, you may think you are contributing to a species by propagating them, or making your house guests aware of what you've found. But you may be doing more harm to the area you took them from, or the area into which you brought them, or to the people whose livelihoods rely on them and you took or stole from them.
So, besides mentioning your intentions with your mementos, you need to be up on the local laws of the place you're taking things from; the laws of the place you're taking things to; and the laws of the places through which you travel to transport things, all in order to know whether such a thing is allowed to be taken to or from. It's just not feasible to answer here with anything more reasonable other than "you should not remove anything". (And be careful about those pictures).
In England and Wales, except where prohibited by other law, you have a common law right to collect the "Four Fs" for personal use: fruit, foliage, flowers and fungi. You don't have this right if you're trespassing, but it applies in any area where you can lawfully be, which includes national parks.
You may collect rocks or even use a metal detector in national forests, which have different rules than national parks. It would have been helpful if people had answered with actual legal facts rather than what they think or believe should be right, but then again, you did ask about national parks, not national forests.
According to the National Park Service, collecting items from national parks is prohibited, with 2 exceptions:
Collecting, rockhounding, and gold panning of rocks, minerals, and paleontological specimens, for either recreational or educational purposes is generally prohibited in all units of the National Park System (36 C.F.R. § 2.1(a) and § 2.5(a)).
There are two exceptions to the general prohibition. Limited recreational gold panning is allowed in the Whiskeytown unit of the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area in California, in accordance with regulations at 36 CFR § 7.91.
The second exception involves some Alaska park units, where surface collection by hand (including hand-held gold pans) and for personal recreational use only, of rocks and minerals (except for silver, platinum, gemstones, and fossils) is allowed in accordance with 36 CFR § 13.20(c). Shovels, pickaxes, sluice boxes, and dredges may not be used to collect these items. If collecting these resources is likely have a significant adverse impact on park resources or visitor enjoyment, the park superintendent will prohibit or restrict collection.
I have found the item collection policies of all 8 national parks in Alaska.
Denali National Park
Their web page says the following:
Leave the backcountry as you found it; do not take home rocks, artifacts, antlers, animal remains or flowers as souvenirs. Feel free to eat edible plants and berries for personal consumption.
Gates of the Arctic National Park
Their web page says the following:
It is illegal to remove most natural objects, including plants and flowers, as well as cultural artifacts from any National Park Service lands.
Natural objects of beauty or interest, such as antlers or fossils, should be left for others to discover and enjoy. Antlers also provide an important calcium source for small mammals.
Gates of the Arctic has been inhabited for thousands of years. Decendants of ancient residents still use the land and its resources to lead a subsistance lifes. Any items that you find such as traps, tools, firepits, etc., that appear recent, may be parts of historical or prehistoric cultural sites. Please do not disturb things that are even potentially cultural or historic structures or artifacts. Please report such sites to park staff so they can be surveyed.
Glacier Bay National Park
Their web page says the following:
Do not destroy, injure, or remove plants, rocks, feathers, occupied shells or other features. Only the collection of the following is permitted: unoccupied seashells, all edible berries and fruits, edible mushrooms, and clams or mollusks taken in accordance with state regulations.
The harassing, injuring, or killing of any wildlife is prohibited. Help wildlife remain wild by never feeding any animal, including squirrels and gulls.
Possessing, destroying, injuring, defacing, removing, digging, or otherwise disturbing cultural and archeological resources is prohibited.
Katmai National Park
Their web page says the following:
Nuts, berries, and unoccupied seashells can be collected for personal use. Collecting artifacts, rocks, antlers, or other natural and cultural resources is prohibited. Collecting fossils on state or federal lands is prohibited.
Kenai Fjords National Park
Their web page says the following:
Can I mine for gold?
Recreational gold panning is permitted in park rivers and streams. Disturbance of soil or subsurface areas is prohibited, so the use of shovels, picks, explosives, sluice boxes, suction dredges, etc. is not allowed.
May I collect rocks?
Recreational rock collecting by hand (no tools) is permitted.
May I collect mushrooms, nuts, berries, etc.?
Yes, small quantities of these items may be collected by hand for personal use. No tools are allowed, and commercial harvesting is prohibited.
Is hunting, fishing, and trapping allowed in the park?
Fishing is allowed in accordance with state laws. Hunting is not allowed. Trapping is not allowed. Subsistence hunting is not allowed.
Kobuk Valley National Park
Their web page says the following:
Leave any natural items or artifacts just as you find them - bring home pictures instead.
Lake Clark National Park
Their web page says the following:
Removing historic artifacts, fossils, antlers/horns, skulls, plants, rocks, etc. is not allowed. Leave them for the next visitor to discover and enjoy.
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
Their web page says the following (see the web page for more details including what quantities are allowed):
Berries, mushrooms, and plants may be gathered for personal use. They may not be sold.
Driftwood, seashells, and dead wood for firewood may be gathered.
Plants and minerals may be gathered for traditional ceremonies done by Native Americans.
Recreational gold-panning and collection of small rocks is allowed. Visitors may not use metal detectors or hand tools to dig in the ground. Rocks may not be sold.
Silver, platinum, gemstones, and fossils may NOT be collected.
Antlers and horns may NOT be collected.
Threatened & Endangered species may NOT be collected.
Cave formations may NOT be collected.
Archeological items may NOT be collected.
take nothing but picturesis part of the leave no trace philosophy.