By By ERIN VER BERKMOES / Dowagiac Daily News
After identifying new boundaries for state parks, forest and state game areas to better manage state land holdings, the Department of Natural Resources is evaluating its land outside of these areas for its contribution to the DNR's natural resource management goal.
About 15 Cass County residents came to the campus of Southwestern Michigan College on Tuesday evening to hear what the DNR had to say about its plans for parcels of state owned land within the county.
The pieces of land that are being evaluated during this second of three phases for the program are those that are isolated and that have reduced conversation and recreation values to the state.
The land is also looked at for its pertinence to the DNR's mission and its relevant ecological or cultural resource values
Once the land had been evaluated it is placed into one of three categories.
The first one being that it will remain under state ownership and DNR administration.
The second is that it would remain protected or accessible to the public, but could potentially be owned and administered by an alternative conservation entity.
And finally the third is that it would not remain in DNR ownership, it would either be exchanged for another parcel of land or auctioned off.
Judy Clarke-Corak of Dowagiac said, "I think that this meeting has been very informative and I got out of it what I was hoping to receive."
Barbara Cook, who is on the County Planning Commission and Vice-President of MEANDERS said, "They gave a very good overview of the plan, and knew about things that were going on with Dodd Park. The plan also seems to be very fair."
Within Cass County, this Land Ownership Strategy would affect 38 parcels of land. As of right now the state would plan to keep 30 of them, offer six to outside agencies, and dispose of two. Most of the parcels are also smaller sections of land.
The final decision about what to do with the land is made by the NRC which is a seven member panel appointed by the governor, and who makes a majority of the decisions in the DNR about things that are to be done, such as change hunting and fishing seasons, as well as game limits, and the Director of the DNR also has a say in what the final outcome is.
With the third phase of the process the DNR will send out notices to governments to see if they would like to acquire the land that has been classified a two.
If they aren't interested then the land would then be retained by the DNR, but it would also be put up for exchange or could eventually be auctioned off.
The DNR prefers to exchange the land for another piece of property.
If the land were to be auctioned off it would be at the appraised value of the property.
Also any funds that the state accrues from the sale of any of this land would then be used to acquire lands with greater resource and recreational value.
For more information on this strategy go to http://www-.michigan.gov/dnr.