It's getting to be that time of year: Apples are growing, blackberries have ripened – and pretty soon, you'll be able to find piles of smashed, rotten, unpicked fruit on a city sidewalk or in a suburban parking lot near you.
It's hard to believe, but there are plenty of people out there who own fruit trees and never harvest the fruit. And, sadly, Rhode Island law prohibits the rest of us from helping ourselves before it goes to waste.
Whether anyone actually follows those rules or enforces them is another story, of course. But before you go foraging this fall, you might as well know what the rules say.
Is it a crime to pick fruit from someone else's tree in Rhode Island?
Broadly speaking, taking fruit, flowers or anything else that is growing on someone else's property without permission is considered theft – just as if you came and took one of their lawn chairs.
And while it's rare to hear about anyone getting arrested for picking a stranger's fruit nowadays, that wasn't always the case.
The Providence Journal's archives indicate that six people were fined for "taking fruit" from a garden between 1882 and 1887. (The fines ranged from $1 to $3.) There are also numerous accounts of men and children being charged with "larceny of apples" for taking fruit from commercial orchards and farms, the last of which dates to 1940.
Fruit theft used to be a much bigger source of concern than it is today: In a 1925 article titled "Rural Residents Wage War on Produce Pirates," The Journal reported that "No Trespassing" signs were going up at farms and country estates that were previous open to picnickers, because too many city-dwellers were showing up and helping themselves to flowers, fruit and berries.
City dwellers, too, also complained about thieves – some of whom were probably trying to feed their families.
"Fruit thieves are giving the owners of fruit trees much trouble this fall," The Journal reported on Sept. 14, 1914. "Instances have been noted where two or more women accompanied by small children have passed a yard where there are fruit trees. The children are sent into the yard to pick up what fruit they find and hurry out before they are noticed."
What if you can reach it from the sidewalk, or your yard?
Today, most people would probably never even think of walking into someone's backyard and pilfering fruit and berries.
But when an apple tree's branches hang over a public street or sidewalk, or reach onto your property, that may feel like a different equation – especially if the tree's owners don't seem interesting in harvesting the fruit.
Rhode Island law doesn't say anything about whether it's legal to pick fruit from someone else's tree if you can do so without trespassing, making this a gray area.
"The law in the United States is unclear on this question," notes the 2023 book "Neighbor Law: Fences, Trees, Boundaries, and Noise." "People don't take a lawsuit over a few apples all the way to a court in which written opinions are given, and the legislatures have not considered the issue worthy of attention, so there aren't any specific laws on this issue."
Can you forage fruits and berries on public land?
The Department of Environmental Management's regulations state that "no person shall cut, remove or damage any tree, stone walls, natural element or feature, including but not limited to: fossils and minerals, shrub or vegetation except with official written permission, nor shall any person deface or alter any structure, sign, or other public property or improvements."
That translates to a broad ban on foraging fruit, berries and other wild foods from state parks and management areas – though you're unlikely to get in trouble for snacking on a handful of blueberries during a hike.
For several years now, Rep. David Place, R-Burrillville, has tried to pass a law that would allow people to harvest wild mushrooms from state land for personal consumption, but that hasn't gained any traction.
Your city or town may or may not also ban foraging in local parks. For instance, Providence's city ordinances say that no one can "take, pluck, injure, destroy, cut, mark or deface any flower, root, plant, shrub, tree, building, fence, monument or other property in any park," and Warwick has a similar rule. Glocester prohibits vegetation from being removed from recreation areas without permission.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Is picking fruit from a neighbor's tree legal? What RI law says
