Michigan Department of Natural Resources senior lands program manager Patrick Mohney talks about public lands at Sleepy Hollow State Park in Laingsburg. Credit: Donté Smith
By Gabriel S. Martinez
Capital News Service
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is looking for deals to create more green space in populated areas as part of an updated public lands strategy.
The goal is to equitably provide public access to green space, wildlife habitat and public hunting closer to where people live, department officials say.
Efforts in the past two years include acquisitions in Van Buren, Monroe and Ionia counties.
Those involved buying private land adjacent to public land to consolidate green spaces.
Scott Whitcomb, the director of the DNR’s Office of Public Lands, said a major pending deal involving Black River Ranch in Sanilac County is expected to close by the end of 2025.
That property acquisition will bring in about 8,844 acres, including over 14 miles of the Black River, the East Branch of the Black River, Stewart Creek and three lakes including 150-acre Silver Lake. It will become part of the Pigeon River Country Forest Management Unit.
DNR said the purchase will cost about $17 million.
The money will come from the Forest Legacy Program, a Black River Ranch Grant Award, Natural Resources Trust Fund and a $1 million donation from Little Traverse Conservancy, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Nature Conservancy, according to the Natural Resources Commission.
Elsewhere in the state, Whitcomb said, “We’ve been planning to acquire about 19,000 acres in Keweenaw County. We got some projects in the Upper Peninsula we’re looking at, as well some areas in southern Michigan — as funds and grants become available.”
At the same time, the DNR sells parcels that it’s decided are better suited for private use or not environmentally or strategically important.
“It gets said a lot that we just buy up land, but what doesn’t get said is we also dispose of a lot of land as well,” said Patrick Mohney, the DNR’s senior lands program manager.
“Twice a year we’ll do land auctions and dispose of those pieces that make more sense for private ownership,” Mohney said.
“There’s power issues, there’s potential trespass issues, there’s user conflict issues. We can alleviate a lot of these issues by consolidating ownership and disposing of the outliers,” he said.
The department has inventoried its land holdings and created a long-term plan.
Whitcomb said, “Land has been acquired from private holdings or tax reversions and put into the public trust. It happened in a checkerboard fashion.”
“We have an active program to try to consolidate ownership and buy land that is surrounded by public land because it makes our management more efficient,” he said.
Ed Golder, a DNR public information officer, said providing the public with access to more parks helps surrounding communities from an economic standpoint and helps their overall quality of life.
Whitcomb said, “As you start to look at the public assets in peoples’ backyards, they become gateway communities.”
“A certain amount of economic development occurs because of them. From tour sales and increasingly solar energy production, we are always looking for those opportunities,” Whitcomb said.