I am researching into this as well for Florida. There is a State park nearby that has awesome material that could become excellent bonsai some day, but haven't figured out if they even allow collecting at all.
The little hope I have comes from people getting permission to hunt animals. If they give permission to hunt animals there should be some way of getting permission to collect trees. From my point of view, the collected trees have a better chance of surviving than any hunted animals, even if it is in my hands
