Decision Expected at
Natural Resources Commissions Meeting Thursday
Media Contact:
Anne Woiwode, anne.woiwode@sierraclub.org
, 517-484-2372 x 11
Note: Sierra Club Forest Ecologist Marvin Roberson will be available at the NRC Meeting Referenced in this release.
Note: Sierra Club Forest Ecologist Marvin Roberson will be available at the NRC Meeting Referenced in this release.
LANSING--Sierra
Club today called on Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Keith
Creagh to reject the sale of DNR lands to Graymont, a Canadian limestone mining
company. If approved by Creagh, the proposed sale would constitute the largest
sale of publicly owned land to a private company in Michigan’s history. Creagh’s decision could come as soon as
Thursday at the Michigan Natural Resources Commission (NRC) meeting in
Roscommon.
“Director Creagh should follow the law with regard to
disposal of state lands and deny this proposed sale,” said Marvin Roberson, Sierra Club
Forest Ecologist. “As proposed, the Graymont
sale would establish a dangerous precedent and undermine our long-standing Michigan
tradition of ensuring publicly owned lands that we value today are also there
for future generations of Michiganders.”
Sierra Club’s concerns were detailed in a March 16 letter to Director Creagh and will be presented at the NRC meeting Thursday. In the letter, Sierra Club outlined Creagh’s
failure to comply with requirements under state law regarding the sale and
disposal of state lands. Other concerns include the state’s failure to make the
necessary determination that the proposed Graymont sale involves land that has
been designated “surplus” under state law.
Moreover, the scale of the transaction—involving ten times the land of
any previous land sale—could set a precedent for other similar sales of that
magnitude.
“The DNR has an obligation to manage our public lands to
serve the interests of Michigan citizens, who put a very high value on the many
benefits our state lands give us,” said Roberson. “Director Creagh is obliged
to ensure that he and his agency are serving the long-term interests of the
people of Michigan, and the handling of the Graymont proposal fails to comply with
that duty.”
Sierra Club’s letter to Director Creagh is available here. Information about the Graymont proposal is
posted on the DNR’s website at http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10368_11797_66953---,00.html
