Maple Syrup Tappers Sapped by MI DNR

[XLFD]

Morel season is currently underway, and you may be tempted to go to the local state park or national forest to forage around for the tasty fungal morsel.  Is it legal to take these from public land?  When this MSUE publication tells us that "State and federal governments have provided numerous public land areas, parks and recreation areas for [Morel hunters] use and enjoyment", tells us that Porcupine Mountain Wilderness Park is fantastic hunting grounds and we also have the DNR creating interactive maps directing us to look on state land, one would think that it is.

Be advised, harvesting a morel mushroom involves the hunter ripping out the mushroom from the ground, then taking it out of the forest to be eaten.  With that level of permissiveness concerning morels found in state forests by MSUE and the MI DNR consider what happens in this recent article dealing with a different type of 'hunter' posted on May 9 by Mlive:

OAKLAND COUNTY, MI - Two Michigan residents were recently busted by the DNR for taking more than 220 gallons of maple sap from state land.
According to an official report, the incident occurred when Jacob Griffin, a conservation officer in DNR District 9, was patrolling in Oakland County when he received a complaint of maple trees being tapped without permission.
The complainant indicated there were six, five-gallon buckets full of an unknown substance sitting next to four tapped maple trees. CO Griffin investigated the complaint to discover several maple trees were tapped in a line leading to a residence.

Further investigation revealed that approximately 220 gallons of maple sap were taken from state land.
CO Griffin and his colleagues interviewed the subjects involved, according to the report and two subjects eventually admitted to drilling holes in several trees to take maple water for making maple syrup.
The COs educated the two subjects on the laws regarding the removal of forest products from state owned land, damaging trees on state owned land, and littering.
Enforcement action was taken, according to the report.  [END OF ARTICLE].

The salient part of the law linked to states:  "a person shall not enter upon any state owned land and cut or remove any logs, posts, poles, ties, shrubs, or trees, or any other forest product."  Clearly, no cutting took place (a little drilling, naturally), and the only thing removed was maple water (sap) from a living tree which suffered no real damage.  

Is sap one of those 'other forest products' mentioned in the law.  The DNR section of Michigan law there is nothing that defines what a forest product is.  This term is found in federal law, 46 U.S. Code § 40102.

Sap or any sort of mushrooms are not 'forest products' under that definition.  If the DNR thought that tapping maple trees was such a crime, why does the DNR sanction multiple maple syrup activities taking place on public land where their fellow state employees do the tapping, and are praised for it, rather than publicly shamed for it, such at the Waterloo Recreation Area:

Not to mention Maple Syrup Day, an annual event a Hartwick Pines State Park near Grayling, where the following snip was taken from a DNR website link with this year's itinerary:  

Down in Oakland County, two individuals were 'busted' for taking enough maple water from trees on neighboring state land to make a little over 5 gallons of syrup.  They were nabbed using a law which doesn't seem to apply, a bogus law which is ignored when the DNR sanctions maple syrup events, and morel hunting.  Enforcement action was taken for violating MCL 324,2156.

This might be more bearable if the penalties for violating the law weren't so severe.  MCL 324.2157 tells us that the maple water gatherers have the following potential penalty, if the damages are less than $200.00 (five gallons of processed maple syrup is almost $200):  "the person is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 93 days or a fine of not more than $500.00, or 3 times the aggregate value of the forest product, improvement, or property involved, whichever is greater, or both imprisonment and a fine."

The next section, MCL 324.2158 lists additional penalties:  

"In addition to the penalties provided for in section 2157, a person convicted of violating this subpart shall forfeit in a civil action filed by the state a sum of up to 3 times the actual damages, but not less than $50.00, that were caused by the unlawful act, and court costs and attorney fees. In addition, the material or other property cut or removed shall be seized by the state, and title to the property shall be in the state. In addition, equipment used to violate this subpart may be seized and disposed of to the best advantage of the state as determined by the department."

These additional penalties make it problematical to fight such a silly prosecution, since the violator may have to reimburse the state for their attorney's prosecuting the case if the judge rules that maple water is a forest product contrary to the usual definition.  The Ludington Troch has submitted a FOIA request for the DNR's actions in this case, and will display that when they arrive.

Oddly enough, this is the same MI DNR that along with the MI DEQ and MI AG, approved Nestle's request to pump 60% more water from a well near Evart, where they will extract 220 gallons of well water about every 30 seconds of every day, and pay only a $200 reporting fee to the state per year.  Thanks for keeping us safe, brave conservation officers of the Michigan DNR.