Accomplishments

Land and Water Protection

The Institute also works to develop tools that communities can use to protect their valuable natural resources and to monitor and promote the state’s management of public lands. In 2000 the Institute:

* Developed a shoreline protection ordinance that Great Lakes coastal communities can use to protect beaches, habitat, and property owners from development problems, such as homes on top of erosion-prone bluffs and clearcutting of valuable natural vegetation.

* Brought statewide attention to a pending state plan to swap magnificent public land on South Fox Island, west of Charlevoix. An historic lighthouse and 1.2 miles of sugar sand beach are at risk in this deal with one of the state Republican Party’s most important contributors.

* Worked with a variety of local groups to prepare and formally submit the Ludington State Park Land Reserve petition to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. If approved, the designation would provide long-term protection against oil and gas development to the state park, the surrounding Hamlin Lake complex of sand dunes and wetlands, and more than five miles of Lake Michigan shoreline.

* Convinced the Natural Resources Commission to reject a request from the Michigan Oil and Gas Association that citizen groups pay a $2,000 fee to simply nominate public land for state land reserve status. Calling it a “bad idea even if it was legal,” Institute Executive Director Hans Voss told the commission that it was not acceptable, let alone constitutional, to make people pay for their right to make public comment on public lands.

* Investigated and testified against a state move to sell public lands, including 2,300 acres near Grayling and prime development parcels along Interstate 75. The state’s willingness to sell off large tracts of public lands solely for private economic development runs counter to Michigan tradition and long-standing state policy.