(FOX 2) - The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is currently auctioning off land, including an island and other properties around the state.
According to the DNR, the department manages around 4.6 million acres of public land, but sometimes that property doesn't meet its mission of "conservation, recreation and economic development," so it chooses to sell it. It's a process that has been happening for decades, the department said.
Selecting DNR land to sell
The DNR said an evaluation process takes place to ensure parcels the department manages meet its needs. If they don't, they head to auction.
Dig deeper:
According to the DNR, a public land strategy that is governed by state law guides the process for deciding which land to keep and which land to sell.
"Before parcels ever get to public auction – a management tool the department has used for several decades – we’ve already evaluated all other options, whether it’s a land exchange for land that’s a better fit, or perhaps a situation where it makes more sense for another governmental agency or conservation group to hold the property," said Scott Whitcomb, the director of the DNR’s Office of Public Lands.
The evaluation process includes an in-person visit to a property by DNR staff who are familiar with the land. There are multiple reasons the DNR may decide to sell a property. For instance, some parcels are landlocked by private property and do not allow for public access. Others are too small and thus do not offer meaningful public use opportunities, according to the DNR.
"More than half of the land the DNR manages came to the state due to owners’ nonpayment of taxes, so those parcels were not ones we purposefully sought out and purchased," Whitcomb said. "Our land review process is effective in pointing out parcels that don’t fit the department mission to balance conservation, recreation and economic development."
The DNR said that it maintains all parcels that have critical wildlife importance, such as winter deer yard locations.
What happens to the money
The money raised from land auctions goes into the state's Land Exchange Facilitation Fund. This fund is used to purchase new public land better suited to the DNR's mission.
According to the DNR, this fund has been used to acquire more than 6,500 acres of land spread over 80 parcels.
DNR land auction
The most recent batch of land hitting auction includes several lakefront properties among the 126 parcels.
One of these properties, a 12-acre plot of land in Barry County, features 20 feet of shoreline along Long Lake, while another another property in Newaygo County sits along John Ford Lake.
See more of the featured properties here.
The Source: This information is from the Michigan DNR.
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