Tapped out? Dispute with DNR over year-round maple tree taps leaves Grand Marais couple feeling stuck
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Warmer temperatures have brought the maple syrup producing season around Minnesota to a close. It also may portend the end of an era for a couple outside Grand Marais, who have produced maple syrup on their small organic farm for more than a quarter century.
Amid an ongoing dispute with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources over access to public land to tap maple trees, Mark and Melinda Spinler, both 65, worry they may have produced their last bottle of syrup.
The disagreement began in early 2024, when the Spinlers first learned that the DNR didn’t plan to renew the lease they had held for 25 years, which allowed them to tap 600 maple trees on about six acres of state land adjacent to their property where they grow vegetables and raise poultry, high on the ridge above Lake Superior.
On a recent visit to the state land, about a quarter mile from the edge of his property, Mark Spinler donned rubber boots to trudge through mud and snow that still lingered on the forest floor.
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To capture sap from the maples, the Spinlers have strung tens of thousands of feet of plastic tubing, about chest-high, that link together the trees like a spider web.
The maple syrup season is fleeting. The sap flows for just a few weeks in early spring, when the temperature drops below freezing at night, but warms during the day.
Every year, the Spinlers drill a new hole in each tree, and the sap flows by gravity, through the tubes, down the hillside to their property, where the tubing is attached to tall, wooden poles that carry the sap all the way to the sugar house, where it’s transformed into maple syrup.
That topography is what drew them to this site.
“That's exactly why 27 years ago, we looked at this and thought it would be an ideal spot,” said Mark Spinler.
“And back then, the area manager for this area — we remember him telling us, and it's hard to disagree with him — that tapping and collecting sap here is the best use for this land.”
When the Spinlers signed their first lease with the DNR, they had written permission to leave their equipment out year-round.
The DNR says the Spinlers have been in violation of subsequent leases that did not allow them to keep their tubing system set up on state land. But the Spinlers say the DNR never told them otherwise.
“They kept taking our money. And now all of a sudden, that's a problem,” said Mark Spinler.
Clarissa Spicer, the DNR's northeast regional director, said she doesn’t know what the Spinlers were told 25 years ago. But she said the agency now is moving away from those long-term leases, in favor of annual permits.
“On the 10-year leases, the people who hold the leases don't need to check in with the DNR annually. And so it's really that lack of contact, and there isn't a lot of communication when you have a lease,” Spicer said.
With an annual permit, Spicer said, people who use the land are required to check in every year with a local forester about any forest health issues or land management plans, “and they can tie in with you and make sure that you're following the rules.”
But an annual permit would require the Spinlers to take down their equipment every May, and reinstall it the following year. The Spinlers say that's just not practical. Their tubing system is too extensive.
They could buy a storage lease from the DNR that allows them to keep out their equipment year-round. But the Spinlers say that would cost more than ten times what they currently pay – about half of the value of the syrup they make from state land.
The sugar house
The syrup is made in what the Spinlers call their sugar house at their Maple Hill Sugarbush and Farm. Outside, big tanks hold the sap that flows in from the trees.
Inside, a stainless steel evaporator boils off excess water in the sap. They’ve adapted old dairy industry equipment into storage tanks. The Spinlers estimate they’ve invested more than $200,000 over the years into their production system.
Mark Spinler loads birch logs into a wood stove that heats the sap in the evaporator, causing it to bubble. A sweet smell permeates the crowded room.
The sap starts out on average about 2 percent sugar. After it’s concentrated, the sugar content is 66 percent.
It takes the Spinlers about seven hours in the sugar house to reduce a thousand acres of sap down to about 26 gallons of maple syrup. For the season, they produced more than 200 gallons from the trees on state land, plus another 100 trees they tap on their property.
”It's something I have to face that this could be our last year,” said Melinda Spinler. The couple was able to operate this year on a one-year extension secured by state Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, who represents the region.
She said she feels that the agency isn’t living up to its mission to provide for sustainable commercial uses of natural resources. But she’s still hopeful they can find a solution to keep their business alive.
“I certainly wouldn't say we're discouraging commercial maple tapping,” responded the DNR’s Spicer.
“We're not encouraging people leaving equipment on state forest land year-round, though, either. So we're trying to strike that balance.”
That’s the elusive goal of land managers everywhere, including in Minnesota — to try to balance competing economic, ecological and social values when making decisions about the best use of public land.
“Their job is to manage public resources for public good, and that absolutely can include uses that benefit a private business,” said Eli Sagor, extension forestry specialist at the University of Minnesota.
“They have to try to balance private benefits and how those might or might not interfere with other public uses. And it can get tricky. Sometimes they're real straightforward and governed by clear policies. But in other cases, they're a little bit tougher.”
The Spinlers’ case is unusual. Across Minnesota, most maple trees are tapped on private land. There is only one other existing long-term lease, in Aitkin County. DNR officials say that producer removes their equipment at the end of every tapping season.
The DNR said it issues only about 20 annual permits to tap trees commercially on state land. One of those permits is held by the Spinlers’ neighbor, Mike Hofer, a board member of the Minnesota Maple Syrup Producers’ Association who taps about 200 maple trees every spring. He hauls some of that to the Spinlers to add to their sap supply to make syrup.
Hofer takes down his equipment every year. But he says he could tap more trees if the DNR allowed him to keep his equipment in place. He said it’s frustrating to see access to state land granted to harvest timber, and build ATV trails, but not to allow a few syrup operations to keep up their tubing.
“There absolutely is room for a few acres to be made available to those of us who want to provide a local product that there's demand for, and that is not hurting the land,” said Hofer.
The Spinlers boiled their final batch of sap last week. If nothing changes, they’ll be required to take down their equipment from state land by the end of the month.
“It's a lot of stress,” said Mark Spinler. “You see the investment we've made, the time we've put in, the community that's built around this. We don't get it. Why are you guys destroying this?”
