Oh for crying out loud...
The reason it's difficult to get a damn permit to dig bonsai IS NOT GOVERNMENT'S fault. It's not a constitutional failing. It's because we want something very obscure, unknown and well, mystifying.
Hunting permits, well everyone knows what hunting is...logging,well same thing.
"You wanna do whut?" is the most common response from Federal or local officials to a request to dig trees.
All officials here is "I wanna dig up a tree." Their experience with plant collection is clouded by abuse of the practice (especially here in the East) for plants like Ginseng and mushrooms--if you don't think this practice and plant poaching isn't significant, do a news search on Google. Ginseng markets are lucrative and markets for wild mushrooms are also money makers.
So, if you get a quizzical, or non-response about collecting for bonsai, you have to be persistent. Keep asking, educate the official. Bring photos, show them books and other info on what bonsai is.
DON'T throw your hands up and claim it's all government's fault because of some Constitutional clause or idiot bureaucrat. The majority of people I've talked to at National Parks, etc. LOVE the outdoors. Most truly understand, when the subject is explained, bonsai and its appeal on a gut level. Some might even point you to the best places to collect.
And for what it's worth, this statement:
What this does is limit the powers of the federal government to what is expressly spelled out in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Everything else is under State and Local jurisdiction.
has been the heart of a long and continuing struggle between state and Federal government. The Constitution is INTENTIONALLY vague on the lines between Federal, State and individual power.That's why there are Federal and State Court systems, overseen by the Supreme Court. The Constitutional framers intentionally set up that struggle and left it for us to work out--it's never settled and never clear. The framers understood that setting such clear lines would prove to be inflexible and stifling.