In an email dated December 12, Minnesota Senator Grant Hauschild, District 3, DFL, wrote that the Minnesota DNR retreated from its demand that Maple Hill Sugarbush & Farm in Grand Marais remove its tapping equipment by the end of the year. According to Hauschild, the DNR will work with Maple Hill operators Mark and Melinda Spinler to create a new leasing model for the future.
This retreat from the DNR is a welcome relief for the Spinlers, as it allows them to continue syruping into the 2025 season.
As we reported in November, Maple Hill Sugarbush has operated for 25 years. It produces maple syrup from sap gathered under a maple tapping permit first issued by DNR officials in 1998, which it faithfully renews yearly.
Part of its sugar bush is on the Spinler’s property, but most of its sap comes from an adjoining 10-acre maple tree stand on DNR-managed property. With the assurance of a renewable permit, the Spinlers invested their savings, bought commercial production equipment, built a sugar house, and installed a system to bring sap from the leased stand directly into storage tanks at the sugar house.
Last winter, the DNR informed the Spinlers that they could no longer lease the maple stand, a crucial part of their farm income. The DNR had awarded a logging contract for the parcel, which has since been canceled. The DNR gave the Spinlers until year-end to remove all the gathering systems they had installed and maintained over the past 25 years.
The Spinler’s 15-acre sugarbush (ten of which is on DNR land) is ideal for a maple tapping operation. It has mature maple trees, a natural grade leading to their homestead a 1⁄4 mile away, and no other designated use of the property by the state. It’s a remote stand entirely out of the public eye and rarely sees people other than the Spinlers and their friends, who help them tap the maples each spring.
When reached this week for comment, the Spinlers expressed their relief at the reprieve for this season. However, they remain hopeful, yet cautious, that negotiations, if they take place, would bring the long-term certainty they need for their operations.
“The DNR has advised us that we don’t need to take our equipment out,” Melinda Spinler said. “But they’ve yet to commit to us that we can tap this spring.”
Hauschild wrote, “This progress would not have been possible without the loud and clear voices of local supporters in letters, phone calls, emails, and meetings. Our community is united in the demand to save Maple Hill Sugarbush and Farm.”
The Spinlers credit Senator Hauschild and his Legislative Assistant, Jamie Hysjulien, for finding this temporary solution to their troubled negotiation with DNR officials.
In his recent email, Hauschild wrote, “This victory is an example of how community and elected officials can come together and make the government more responsive to the needs of its people and function as a ‘State that Works’ for all Minnesotans.”
