Foraging Laws by State (2026): Where It’s Legal to Pick Berries & Mushrooms — All 50 States, Cited

Federal land: the simpler layer

Because so much foraging happens on federal land, let’s start here. The federal rules are more uniform than the state patchwork (which is the part that trips people up):

All 50 states, with citations

Status refers to recreational foraging of wild edibles (berries, mushrooms, nuts) in state parks specifically — state forests and wildlife areas often differ (noted where they do). Every rule below was checked against the cited statute, administrative code, or official agency publication on August 18, 2026.

† Oklahoma only. Every official Oklahoma host refused automated retrieval, so 725:30-4-1 is confirmed against two independent legal-code mirrors (Cornell LII and Justia) rather than the state portal. All other rows on this table were verified against the issuing agency or legislature directly on August 21, 2026. Always confirm locally before relying on any of it.

↓ Download the full 50-state table as CSV (with citation URLs)

The states worth knowing in depth

Washington — the most generous in the country

RCW 79A.05.165 makes taking park plants a misdemeanor by default, but the Parks Commission’s own rule flips it open: WAC 352-28-030 allows recreational harvest of edible plants and fruiting bodies — mushrooms, berries, nuts — up to two gallons per person per day in nearly every park classification. Hard limits: never in natural area preserves, no rakes or destructive techniques, no commercial harvest, and individual parks can close areas.

Oregon — one gallon a day, recently reaffirmed

OAR 736-010-0055(6), amended effective March 11, 2025, lets visitors gather berries, fruits, mushrooms, or similar edibles up to one gallon per person per day unless posted. Uprooting plants or taking roots, tubers, flowers, or stems stays banned (science permits only), and members of federally recognized Oregon tribes have a separate cultural-gathering exception. Posted areas like the Shore Acres formal gardens are off-limits.

Pennsylvania — parks and forests aligned

State parks (17 Pa. Code § 11.211) and state forests (§ 21.115) both permit gathering edible fruits, nuts, berries, and fungi “in reasonable amounts” for personal or family consumption. The carve-out does not cover anything on the Chapter 45 protected native plant list (threatened, endangered, rare, or vulnerable species), and dead-and-down wood may only be burned in-park.

Michigan — broad allowance, sharp edges

R 299.922(h) exempts mushrooms, berries, and edible fruits or nuts for personal use from the vegetation ban across parks, state forests, and game areas. The edges: no wild ginseng, nothing that dies when you harvest it (ramps, fiddleheads), no maple tapping on public land, nothing from wildlife food plots, and no resale — ever.

Minnesota — allowed today, watch this space

Minn. R. 6100.0900 allows edible fruit and mushrooms — only those two categories — for personal use in state parks; state forests use a permit system for anything beyond small personal amounts. A legislative Foraging Task Force has been actively reviewing Minnesota’s rules since 2025, so this is the state most likely to rewrite its foraging law soon.

New York — two agencies, opposite answers

OPRHP state parks prohibit removing any plant life, full stop (9 NYCRR § 375.1). But on DEC lands — state forests, the Adirondack and Catskill forest preserve, WMAs — 6 NYCRR 190.8(g) allows taking plants and fungi for personal consumption. Know whose sign is at the trailhead. Protected native plants (6 NYCRR Part 193.3) are off-limits everywhere.

California — effectively closed

14 CCR § 4306 bans picking anything — berries and fruit are named in the rule text. The only opening: a District Superintendent can post an authorization at unit headquarters allowing berries, mushrooms, pine cones, or driftwood at a specific unit. In practice, assume no California state park allows foraging unless you have seen the posted authorization yourself.

Florida — a misdemeanor, not a fine

Beyond the park rule (62D-2.013), Fla. Stat. § 258.008 makes collecting plant specimens without Division permission a second-degree misdemeanor and grounds for ejection from every Division property. The one carve-out is charmingly Floridian: empty seashells, sea glass, and fossil shark teeth between the waterline and the dunes.

Texas — no exception, criminal penalty

31 TAC § 59.134(l)(1) makes picking or removing any plant life an offense absent a director’s permit, and Parks & Wildlife Code § 13.112 grades it a Class C misdemeanor. No berry, no mushroom, no exception — mesquite beans and prickly pear included.

Wisconsin — one rule, all DNR land

NR 45.04(1s) covers state parks, forests, WMAs, and natural areas in one shot: hand-collect edible fruits, nuts, wild mushrooms, wild asparagus, and watercress for personal consumption, no permit. Seeds and roots need permits (which effectively protects ginseng), and you may pull listed invasive plants freely.

Rules that apply almost everywhere

Now, four rules hold nearly everywhere.

Wild ginseng is different. Even permissive states carve it out — Michigan, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin all block it, and West Virginia bans digging it on all public lands by statute. Assume public-land ginseng digging is illegal everywhere.

Personal use never means resale. Every allowance in the table is consumption-only; commercial harvest requires a permit or is flatly illegal (Kansas, for example, prohibits selling any mushrooms taken from department lands).

Posted signs beat the general rule. Superintendents and park managers in nearly every state can close areas or override defaults — the trailhead sign is part of the law.

Know your species cold before anything goes in the basket. Legality is only half the problem — identification is the other. Start with my guides to chicken of the woods and morel hunting, and see the homesteader’s foraging & herbal remedies guide for what to do with a legal harvest. Preserving your haul? Use the USDA/NCHFP canning times & pressures chart. Hunters checking season overlap on the same public lands can use the Brand Avalanche network sibling’s deer season dates by state.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it legal to forage berries and mushrooms in state parks?

It depends entirely on the state. As of August 2026, 15 states expressly allow picking berries and mushrooms in their state parks, 29 prohibit it outright without a permit, and 6 allow it only in limited or designated forms.

What are the most forager-friendly states?

Washington (2 gallons per person per day, including mushrooms), Oregon (1 gallon per day), and Kansas (whole edible wild plants allowed) lead, along with Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Ohio, Vermont, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Alaska and Tennessee.

Which states have the strictest foraging bans?

North Carolina and North Dakota have categorical bans naming fungi specifically. Texas, California, Florida and Maryland have no personal-use exception at all.

Can I dig wild ginseng on public land?

Almost never. Wild ginseng is banned from digging on public land in nearly every state, even ones that are otherwise permissive about foraging. West Virginia, for example, makes it unlawful to dig, collect or gather ginseng on public lands with only a narrow carve-out for land-grant university researchers.

Are federal land foraging rules the same everywhere?

National forests and BLM land are generally open to personal-use foraging, while national parks are generally closed unless the superintendent designates otherwise.

Final Thoughts

Remember, the question is never “is foraging legal.” It is “whose land is this, and what does that agency say.” Find your state in the table, read the citation, and then read the sign at the trailhead. That order keeps a basket of berries from turning into a citation.

Sources & method

A note on sources: every state’s rule was pulled from the controlling statute, administrative code, or official agency publication (linked per row in the table and CSV) on August 21, 2026 — research-based, no numbers invented, human-edited before publication. One state, Oklahoma, whose official portals refuse automated access is confirmed against Cornell LII and Justia legal mirrors and is flagged with †; the other six formerly flagged states were upgraded to official agency or legislature sources on August 21, 2026. Federal rules: 36 CFR 2.1, 43 CFR 8365.1-5, USFS forest-products pages.