Each March for the past 30 years, Don and Elaine O'Brien trekked into the woods that were once part of their farm in Maple Grove. Bearing taps and bags, they set about collecting sap from dozens of maple trees to boil into maple syrup. No one seemed to notice, or care.
The O'Briens, in their late 80s, harvested the sap believing the privilege was grandfathered to them back in 1981, when they sold 50 acres for what is now Medicine Lake Regional Trail in Three Rivers Park District.
Every year since they collected sap, in some years producing more than 100 quarts of syrup. They canned it in fruit jars to donate to their church benefit sale, or to share with family and neighbors.
Then last March a Park District official pedaling by on her bike on an unseasonably warm day happened upon the O'Briens' blue bags of sap. The O'Briens subsequently got a voice phone message from park police: Stop collecting the sap or risk a citation.
"That was our property and we had an oral agreement with them that we could keep tapping the trees," Elaine O'Brien said.
But Margie Walz, Three Rivers associate superintendent, said, "It's really private use of public property." The district, which found no record of a promise to the couple, is sympathetic to them while "trying to do the right thing protecting the public's interest," she said.
The O'Briens' bid to tap the trees again when the weather warms up was presented Thursday before the park district's parks and natural resources committee. The panel, after a brief discussion, recommended denying their request for a tree-tapping permit.
Walz, who discovered the tree taps on her bike ride, said longtime park district administrator Del Miller was at the land sale and "he did not promise it. I checked with our forester who was there at the time. He did not promise it. No staff would have the authority to make a promise like that."