Lower Merion, PA Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

The prohibition sits in Chapter 109, Parks and Playgrounds, § 109-6, Animals; trees, which covers every Township park as defined in § 109-1, a list running from arboreta and bird sanctuaries to ballfields, hiking trails and the grounds around public buildings. The section reads as a single flat ban: no person may annoy, injure or kill any animal or bird, disturb fish or waterfowl in park streams, pools or ponds, or carry away a bird's nest or egg. It also protects flora, forbidding injury to any tree, plant, shrub, fern, blossom or flower, though the Board of Commissioners carved out one narrow exception: picking violets, buttercups, daisies or dandelions is expressly permitted.

Because the ban sits inside the park-rules chapter rather than a general wildlife code, it applies only to conduct occurring within Township parks and playgrounds, not on private land or public streets elsewhere in the Township. Enforcement runs through § 109-4, which tasks the Township Manager, assisted by the Lower Merion Police Department, with enforcing Chapter 109 and any rules the Parks and Recreation Committee adopts under it; day-to-day supervision of parks otherwise falls to the Director of Parks and Recreation under §§ 109-2 and 109-3.

Anyone cited is prosecuted as a summary offense before a Montgomery County District Justice under § 109-21, and police may also remove a person from a park for violating any law or Township ordinance while on park grounds. There is no permit or exception process for injuring wildlife or removing a nest; the rule is an unconditional bar tied to location rather than species.