Public Lands In the News

A smallish piece of pre-settlement prairie and savanna near the St. Clair River could become Michigan's first state-designated wilderness area since 1988 if the Legislature accepts a recommendation from the Department of Natural Resources.

The 200-acre parcel lies within Algonac State Park and was not in imminent peril from encroachment. But backers of the wilderness (or natural area) designation said the extra protection will help keep it pristine for generations.

More important, the DNR's willingness to recommend wilderness protection for state-owned land for the first time since a portion of the Saugatuck Dunes State Park was set aside in 1988 is a signal that the state's Wilderness and Natural Areas program may at last be revitalized, said Danielle Korpalski of the advocacy group Environment Michigan.  "It's only 200 acres, but it's the first 200 acres in 20 years," Korpalski said.

DNR officials hesitated Tuesday to describe the recommendation, made by Director Rebecca Humphries in April, as a signal the wilderness program launched in 1972 was returning to a high level of activity.

Humphries "would like to revitalize the natural areas program," said DNR spokeswoman Mary Detloff. There is a significant backlog of potential properties that could be considered for inclusion, she said. "But we don't have any dedicated funding source to pay for the research" needed to qualify them for wilderness status, Detloff said.

Only 20 sites were designated under the original wilderness area statute, and none since it was rewritten in 1994. The largest by far, at more than 40,000 acres, is in Porcupine Mountains State Park in the western Upper Peninsula. In all, the DNR considers 130,000 acres to be natural areas under some form of enhanced protection from development or exploitation.

Korpalski's group is pushing for wilderness designation for 18 other parcels totaling 45,669 acres. Among those: More than 17,000 acres around Tahquamenon Falls in the eastern Upper Peninsula and 7,000 acres at Wilderness State Park in the northwest Lower Peninsula.

In general, officially designated wilderness areas are off limits to motorized- and mechanized-vehicles (including bikes), mining, lumbering and all forms of commercial activity. Even hiking trail maintenance is kept to a minimum.

Supporters say the supply of true natural areas is tiny and shrinking and that efforts should be made to preserve as much as possible of what is left.