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The ethics of picking wildflowers on public lands: why respecting nature is important

Wildflowers in bloom on the Trillium Trail at Giant City State Park in Illinois. (Photo by Gretchen Steele)

I recently witnessed a near-bloody social media war on picking wildflowers on public land. As a practitioner of the Leave No Trace school of outdoor recreation, I was stunned by the number of people who felt it was perfectly within their rights to pick wildflowers or dig up and transplant plants from public lands.

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