Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
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DNR Director Keith Creagh
P.O. Box 30028
Lansing MI 48909
Feb. 27, 2015
Dear Director Creagh,
On behalf of our collective members and supporters, we urge you to reject the proposed Land Transaction application from Graymont.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources must manage and conserve public lands for public benefit. The Graymont proposal includes lands currently open to the public for hunting and recreational trails, lands supporting wildlife, and lands managed for timber—contiguous forest lands considered some of the most productive forest land in the Eastern Upper Peninsula. The forfeiture of this public land—10,000 acres—would be a terrible loss for Michigan taxpayers and the Eastern Upper Peninsula's growing sustainable forest and tourism economies, but it would be devastating for Michigan's environment. This sale would sacrifice public land for the benefit of a foreign mining company.
—The Graymont proposal makes no sense, economically—while Graymont claims a handful of mining jobs would be created, residents know that any short-term economic gain is far outweighed by the displacement of existing limestone quarrying jobs, and the loss of sustainable, long-term jobs in the forestry and tourism sectors.
—Targeted areas include unique hydrologies and biodiversity which must be protected by the DNR—including karst terrain featured in Michigan's Natural Features Inventory, globally-rare alvar plant communities, and northern fens critical for the endangered Hine's Emerald Dragonfly, one of North America's rarest dragonflies.
—According to the Michigan Forest Resource Assessment and Strategy (2010, DNRE), this area is considered to have "Moderate to High Priority" for maintaining forested ecosystems for biodiversity and wildlife habitat.
—There is no justification for the sale; these lands were never identified as "surplus" holdings.
—The sale of these lands interferes with Indian tribes' rights by having an adverse impact on fishing, hunting and gathering activities of tribal members under the 1836 treaty, as well as a lack of cultural inventory, and no plan for inadvertent discovery.
—DNR senior staff unanimously recommended rejection of the Graymont land transaction.
We collectively voice our opposition concerning this unprecedented, environmentally-destructive sale of publicly held lands. The proposed sale would fail Michigan's taxpayers, tribes, the Eastern Upper Peninsula's growing sustainable forest and tourism economies, and especially Michigan's environment. We urge you to reject the proposed Graymont "Land Transaction" as being inconsistent with the mission of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Sincerely,
Save the Wild U.P. Board of Directors
Save the Wild U.P. Advisory Board
Alexandra Maxwell, Save the Wild U.P. Interim Director
Rev. Jon Magnuson, Concerned Clergy of Marquette
Charles West, Concerned Clergy of Marquette
Rev. Tesshin Paul Lehmberg, Concerned Clergy of Marquette
Aaron Payment, Tribal Chairperson of The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians
Lori Ann Sherman, Natural Resources Director, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community
Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve
Concerned Citizens of Big Bay
Northwoods Native Plant Society
Charlotte Jameson, Policy Manager, Michigan League of Conservation Voters
Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club, Central Upper Peninsula Group
Friends of the Land of Keweenaw Board of Directors
Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority
The Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition
Ken and Kathy English, Citizens against the Rexton Project
Marquette Unitarian Universalist Social Action Committee
Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination
Andrew Adamski, President of Students for Sustainability, Northern Michigan University
Property owners of Trout Lake:
Wilda and Don Frederick, Rexton, Mich.
Sharon and Tom Donaghue, Trout Lake, Mich.
James C. Furlong, Trout Lake
Carmen and Dan Hamp, Trout Lake
Loretta and Gary Loomis, Trout Lake
Nina Cadreau, Trout Lake
Dottie and Peter Winkleman, Trout Lake
Karen and David Kovacich, Trout Lake
Claudia and Fred Borcherts, Trout Lake
Robert E. Wilbrett, Trout Lake
Janis and Bob Hansen, Trout Lake
Fran and Jim Liddel, Trout Lake
Tom Witrens, Trout Lake