Michigan’s state-owned public lands are in danger of reaching an ecological tipping point, according to a new report released by Environment Michigan Research and Policy as part of its Million Acres Project. The report—Pure Michigan? Protecting One Million Acres of Our Natural Heritage—describes key threats facing public lands and recommends bold action to immediately protect one million of the most vulnerable and valuable acres.

“Michigan’s travel and tourism campaign touts our state as Pure Michigan,” said Environment Michigan Research and Policy Director Mike Shriberg. “Unfortunately, we don’t deserve this label if we continue to allow special interests to degrade our most valuable public resources—our forests and waterways.”

Immediate threats to our state-owned public lands include:

• The logging industry’s attempts to turn state forests into tree farms through legislation that would require timber sales on nearly all public lands.
• A looming resurgence of hazardous mining in the U.P., including a proposal for a sulfide mine in the pristine headwaters of a stream near Lake Superior.
  
• Sales of state parks and other treasured lands to private developers.
  
• Proposals to increase oil and gas drilling in the AuSable watershed and Pigeon River area.

“Given the increasing intensity and scale of these threats and the few areas of state-owned land that are off limits to such damage, we are calling for strong action from the governor, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and both gubernatorial candidates,” said Shriberg.

The report recommends the following:

1. Governor Granholm should order the DNR to use its authority under the Wilderness and Natural Areas Act to designate the most precious 10% (approximately 450,000 acres) of our state’s land as off limits to development, beginning with the 45,669 acres of pending requests. The Wilderness and Natural Areas Act is the strongest tool at the governor’s disposal to protect state land, yet no land has been protected since part of the Saugatuck Dunes State Park in 1988.
2. As part of the 2006 State Forest Management Plan, the DNR should strengthen and finalize its old-growth and biodiversity protection plan and use it as management criteria on 550,000 other acres of state land, bringing the protected total to one million acres.
3. The DNR should focus on protecting the public interest in the remaining 3.5 million acres of state-owned land, avoiding management where one sector’s use dominates the others.

Environment Michigan talked with over 50,000 Michiganders at their homes since May 1 about the need for protecting one million acres of public lands and found very strong public support. Over 6,000 citizens have told Governor Granholm they support these protections.

“We have a choice: Our public lands can again become ravaged by private industry while the public is left to deal with the consequences, or our elected and agency officials can begin to put our natural heritage first by protecting one million acres,” concluded Shriberg. “Only by taking proactive steps in the face of industry pressure can our state rightfully stake the claim to a ‘Pure Michigan’ label.”

Full copies of the report are available online at www.environmentmichigan.org (under Reports).