LANSING - It's always a bad idea to trespass and damage someone's property, but if a House bill passes, it'll be even worse.

The primary sponsor, Rep. Howard Walker, R-Traverse City, said the measure would punish anyone who destroys crops.

The bill was not prompted by a specific event, but rather by his own experiences in working outdoors, Walker said.

"Stories about snowmobiles driving across hay fields and things like that are pretty common," Walker said. "It's not worth the farmer's time to pursue damages if someone just drives through their property, and we want to make it substantial enough where we can hopefully prohibit that activity."

Current law calls for restitution of twice the damage done to property, although a similar law dealing with the damage of timber mandates triple damages. Walker's bill would increase the factor for crop damage from two to three.

"If somebody drives across their property, it may cause a couple of hundred dollars of damage," Walker said. "People have willfully disrespected and disregarded farmers' occupation and land, and triple damages provide a reason for farmers to fight this sort of thing in court."

Other sponsors include Reps. John Stahl, R-North Branch, John Moolenaar, R-Midland, Matthew Gillard, D-Alpena, Judy Emmons, R-Sheridan and Barb Vander Veen, R-Allendale.

Snowmobiles are the example Walker cited, but Rob Anderson, legislative counsel for the Michigan Farm Bureau, said there are other situations to worry about too.

"Regardless of how it happens, there needs to be respect for the land," said Anderson. "When you destroy a crop, not only the cash value of that crop is lost because some of these are perennial.

"You're not only losing that production now, but also for the next few years. There are a lot of factors that go into the cost, and farmers don't just plant those crops because they're nice to have. They're there for a purpose and for income."