Someone recently posted on Facebook “Just had some in my front yard picking berries that I didn’t know about till I went to get packages that the post man just knocked on my door for. They left pretty quickly after I noticed them. I didn’t give them permission to pick berries, I’m home alone with my child. Made me slightly uncomfortable. But I don’t mind that they wanna pick berries but at least fricken ask first! They were 3 Hispanics I believe with I think a maroon suv. Around the sunshine and 17th St w area. Just want people to be aware. I’ve heard stories in the past about berry pickers also breaking into homes as well.”
Florida’s Saw Palmetto plants are defined as “Commercially Exploited Plants”. Florida Statute 581.185 (c) makes it illegal from for any person to harvest Saw Palmetto berries without permission of the property owner and a permit.
Here in Lehigh Acres, we not only attract snowbirds during the winter months, but we also attract berry pickers during the summertime. It is that time of year now that residents of Lehigh Acres can see people trespassing on private property searching for saw palmetto berries to pick. To some, the pickers do no harm, but to others, they are a huge concern and safety issue. Year after year these pickers have been coming to Lehigh Acres for only one purpose, and that is to trespass for their own benefit.
This is not just only a local problem. Berry picking is a large-scale operation that is taking place statewide. State parks with the help of FWC have been unsuccessfully trying to stop pickers every season. The Florida black bear depends on the saw palmetto as a source of food in the summer and pickers strip every last berry they can get to. Do not be fooled when you drive by one or two pickers and form a belief that it is a small-scale operation. These individuals come in massive numbers and a few people can pick 5,000 lbs of berries per day. This large-scale picking of saw palmetto berries can have a long-term effect on the surrounding environment. The palmetto berry is also the seed for the next generation of plants if they continue to be stripped the plant’s existence will be threatened. Recent studies have shown saw palmettos are crucial for the survival of the Florida Panther. Animals that utilize and depend on the berries for survival are numerous including over a hundred species of birds 27 mammal species, 25 amphibians, and 61 reptiles. I would consider the saw palmetto a keystone species in Florida.
The Florida Department of Agriculture classifies saw palmettos as a “commercially exploited plant” and regulates how they are harvested. According to state law, pickers must obtain a permit from the Department of Agriculture and permission from property owners to harvest saw palmetto berries on private property.