LANSING – Citizens want politics kept out of natural resources management. That was the message delivered to senators at today’s joint Senate hearing to consider a resolution sponsored by Sen. Michelle McManus to reject the governor’s proposed merger of the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Environmental Quality. 

 

Members of the Senate Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Appropriations Natural Resources Subcommittee heard from numerous business and sportsmen’s groups.  While they support merging the DNR and DEQ, these groups cannot accept the governor eliminating the commission system of governance for the departments of natural resources and agriculture.

 

“As I have said right along, the governor got a lot of things right in her Executive Order," McManus said. “But we have heard overwhelmingly today that the issue of silencing citizens’ voices and inserting politics into the management of our natural resources is one that is a deal-breaker for many of the constituents who will be most affected by this change.”

 

The joint committee heard testimony from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Michigan Snowmobile Association, the Michigan Recreation and Parks Association, the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, Michigan Farm Bureau and others who testified in support of Senate Concurrent Resolution 23.  They urged the governor to reconsider her proposal to strip the Natural Resources Commission and the Michigan Commission of Agriculture of their ability to appoint directors of their respective departments.

 

“The Natural Resources Commission is an important buffer between the governor and the department,” said Dennis Schornack of the Michigan Recreation and Parks Association. “Keeping politics one step removed from management of our state’s resources is a valid goal and should be preserved.”

 

The committee took testimony only on SCR 23. The resolution awaits action by the Senate Appropriations Committee.