Grand Marais maple syrup business faces uncertainty amid DNR change to leases and permits

In northern Minnesota, the centuries-old practice of maple syrup tapping remains a local tradition rooted in the region’s vast sugar maple forests.

While many northern Minnesota residents enjoy the annual tradition of maple syrup tapping as a recreational hobby, a select few have built and sustained a business around the natural resource for decades.

In Grand Marais, Mark and Melinda Spinler, owners of Maple Hill Sugarbush, are among those who have made it their livelihood for the last quarter of a century.

Since the late 1990s, the Spinlers have operated a maple tapping business on their property near County Rd 60 and on 10 acres of adjacent state land.

Rather than operate their commercial business under an annual permit, throughout the past 25 years, the Spinlers have maintained a series of long-term leases with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to use state land.

However, their most recent 10-year lease with the DNR expired on March 31, 2024, and the DNR has chosen not to renew it. This decision has left the Spinlers facing considerable uncertainty about the long-term viability of their business.

Erik Evans, the DNR assistant communications director, said historically, the DNR has used “a mix of permits or longer-term leases” for maple syrup producers and businesses. “A lease might have been used when someone with a maple syrup business wanted access to the same acres for several tapping seasons in succession.”

In the past five years, however, the DNR has shifted away from offering or renewing leases, with plans only to provide annual permits.

The reason for the change, Evans said, is that “by using permits, the maple tapper needs to connect with a DNR Forester each year to confirm what and how they want to tap and ensure there is no confusion about the removal of equipment and materials at the end of the sugar season.”

Regardless of operating under a permit or lease, Evans said the DNR requires that maple syrup individuals and businesses remove all equipment from the state land after each sugar run, including taps, tubes, and buckets.

That requirement is an easier task for smaller operations, but for the Spinlers and other commercial businesses who use a vast network of tubing to streamline their operations, it is something that is time and cost-prohibitive.

“On this level, it would take months to put it up and months to put it down and thousands and thousands of dollars to do that,” Melinda Spinler said. “It doesn’t make it financially feasible to do that. It would put us out of business.”

For many years, the Spinlers said they had left their tubing and equipment on the landlocked and “geographically isolated” 10 acres of state land year-round, based on original agreements and historically a good working relationship with the local Grand Marais Forestry Office.

Evans said that for the past decade, some maple tap leaseholders have not complied with requirements to remove their equipment after each syrup season, including nailing or permanently affixing equipment to trees. “This has created a challenge in enforcing the leases,” he said. “We have seen fewer issues with people who have maple tapping permits.”

Rather than enact a statewide decision to move away from the long-term lease model, Mark Spinler said, the DNR should look at maple tapping operations on a case-by-case basis. “We’ve never had any negative interactions with them (DNR) that we’ve done anything incorrectly,” he said.

The DNR issues approximately 20 maple tapping permits annually, with only one active long-term lease remaining. “All other leases have shifted to annual seasonal permits,” Evans said.

With the recent change by the DNR to only offer annual permits rather than long-term leases and the nearing of the maple tapping season in February, the Spinlers and other commercial businesses who once held a lease now face a tough decision.

Evans said the DNR has offered the Spinlers a seasonal maple tapping permit “to help ensure we can provide equitable access, support sustainable use, and comply with state statutes on state forest lands.”

Given the remote location and lack of public access to the 10 acres, the Spinlers said they don’t see their operations as impeding equitable access for the public to use the state land. “We don’t keep people from going in there,” Melinda Spinler said.

Throughout the year, the Spinlers periodically host educational classes for adults and youth on the 10 acres of state land in collaboration with Grand Marais non-profits and local schools. “Even though the only access is through our property, we open that up for everyone to learn,” Melinda Spinler said.

With ongoing discussions with the DNR about how to move forward, the Spinlers have reached out to neighbors, friends, and, more recently, Minnesota Senator Grant Hauschild for support.

“I started hearing from folks all over Cook County, from local elected leaders to community members, customers of the Spinlers, and the Spinlers,” Senator Hauschild said. “So this really highlighted for me one of those issues where I think the state is trying to figure out how to do things, but they’re not really recognizing the impact it has on a local community.”

Hauschild said he recognizes that the DNR had concerns about the industry on a statewide level, given that maple syrup tappers were leaving equipment on state land year-round and the impacts it created on other industries or interactions with the forest. However, he said he has “focused on the situation in Cook County, rather than the situation statewide.”

Hauschild said that regardless of the DNR’s decision, he is moving forward with drafting legislation that would “support the Spinlers operation.”

The DNR will be making a decision about how to move forward with the Spinlers in January.

In recent months, given that the their lease expired, the DNR gave the Spinlers until Dec. 31, 2024, to remove all equipment from the state land. Following the involvement of Senator Hauschild, the DNR has delayed that requirement.

Evans said, “We have recently identified an alternative approach to a maple tapping permit that may prove workable to resolve this situation and have communicated that we will contact the Spinlers early in the new year once we have fully investigated this option.”

Kalli Hawkins December 20, 2024