Public Lands Campaign News
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| On June 5th, the Department of Natural Resources approved the resolution to designate Carney Fen as a Natural Area - permanently protecting 2,326 acres of forest and marsh in the Upper Peninsula. The decision caps a longstanding effort by Environment Michigan and its allies to protect the area from logging and encroaching development. | |
| Ann Arbor, MI- Environment Michigan Research and Policy Center’s “Drilling Our Conservation Heritage†Report, released today, highlights the oil and gas drilling industry as Michigan’s most prominent growing threat to our pristine and treasured state lands. Little action is being taken to protect our most critical natural areas. Instead, state legislators are contemplating the expansion of oil and gas wells for extraction and CO2 storage. The Department of Natural Resources must take action now to ensure our conservation heritage is not threatened. | |
| Wildlife-related recreation, including fishing and hunting, contributes $4.1 billion per year to Michigan’s economy, but a new report released today by Environment Michigan Research and Policy Center reveals that this industry is under imminent threat from logging, oil and gas drilling, and mining. | |
| Judge Elizabeth Laporte of the Northern District of California today overturned the Bush administration’s repeal of protections for nearly 60 million acres of pristine national forest lands – 16,000 of those acres in Michigan. | |
| As the official end of Michigan’s summer tourism season approaches, citizens gathered on the steps of the Capitol to call for protection of Michigan’s most pristine wild places. Environment Michigan joined with local citizens to deliver Our Favorite Wild Places: A Citizen’s Call to Action to Governor Granholm today. The book compiles 140 stories from Michiganders about the need to protect their favorite natural areas on state owned land. Environment Michigan also delivered 5,570 postcards calling on the Governor to use her authority to fully enact the Wilderness and Natural Areas Act and begin to preserve these special places before it is too late. | |
| Michigan’s state-owned public lands are in danger of reaching an ecological tipping point, according a new report released today by Environment Michigan Research & Policy. 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. | |
| As Michiganders begin heading north for the Fourth of July weekend, Environment Michigan is asking Governor Granholm to heed the public demand to protect the state’s dwindling wilderness areas from sprawl, logging, mining, and drilling. In an open letter, the group asked the Governor to endorse protecting one million acres of Michigan’s most irreplaceable public lands. | |
| As Memorial Day approaches and the Michigan Legislature moves forward with bills that could devastate state lands for generations to come, Environment Michigan is launching its Million Acres Project at sites across the state including the Proud Lake Recreational Area, site of a controversial sell-off proposal by the Department of Natural Resources. | |