PORTLAND — Fiddlehead and mushroom foragers in Maine would need written permission from the owner of the land they grow on under a proposed law that would make it illegal to take any natural resource from somebody’s property without written approval.
If passed by lawmakers, the bill would make it a civil violation to take plants, minerals, objects or anything else that exists naturally from private property without approval.
Rep. Walter Kumiega, D-Deer Isle, said he introduced the bill at the request of a forest ranger who knew of instances of people taking stones from stone walls and blueberry sod — sod with blueberry plants in it — without the landowner’s OK. He’s even heard of people taking decorative moss from private property without the owner’s knowledge.
“If you don’t have permission to take it from somebody’s property, you’re stealing,” Kumiega said. “That’s all there is to it.”
David Spahr, a mushroom forager and farmer from Washington, said the bill isn’t needed and is an example of a “solution desperately seeking a problem.”
“The whole bill is completely absurd in my view,” Spahr said. “I can’t understand when we already have private property laws, trespassing laws and theft laws why laying another regulation on this is necessary at all.”
Maine has a long history of public access to private land for hunting, fishing and other recreational uses.
But the use of private property has extended beyond recreation. People hunting for fiddlehead ferns, an early spring delicacy in Maine, and mushrooms often do their foraging on private property as well.
Spahr said he always asks for permission, and has never been turned down, when he’s mushroom hunting on private land. And he’s not concerned if people pick mushrooms or berries on his 95-acre property.
But having to obtain written permission is anti-business and anti-poor and will hurt people who hunt for mushrooms or fiddleheads to make a few bucks, he said.
“This is an economy killer,” he said.
Kumiega said his bill is modeled after a state law that prohibits people from taking evergreen boughs or Christmas trees from private property without written permission. Each fall in parts of rural Maine, people make good money selling the boughs to wreath makers.
Violators would face a civil summons and a fine of no less than $100. The violation would rise to a Class E crime for a repeat offender or if the value of the natural resource exceeds $100, the bill reads.
As it now stands, if a law enforcement officer sees somebody with a truckload of stones he suspects were taken from somebody’s stone wall, he has to find out where they came from, find the owner of the wall and get a theft complaint, Kumiega said.
“With this bill, he’d just write him a ticket,” he said.
The bill was referred to the Legislature’s Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry this week. A public hearing has not been scheduled.
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