Good news! Michigan State Forest campgrounds to remain open

According to the Michigan DNR Facebook page, DNR Director Rodney Stokes announced at the Natural Resources Commission meeting today (Thursday) that all 23 state forest campgrounds slated for closure will remain open this year. Some will be managed by lease with local units of government.

Management of one of those 23 state forest campgrounds, McCollum Lake State Forest Campground in Oscoda County, has already been leased to the local municipality. On Wednesday, June 8, DNR officials announced that Clinton Township would be managing the campground (read more about it here), and hinted that there would be others soon to follow. Thursday's decision by Stokes not to close the campgrounds confirms this.

I spoke with Mary Detloff of the DNR and she said another reason for the closure order to be rescinded is because officials would like to take a better look at how things could be improved. Specifically, is there a better way for the state forestry department and the state parks and recreation department to work together in managing the state forest campgrounds. The Parks & Rec Department oversees the state park campgrounds, so it would seem there should be some system that could be worked out.

The issue first surfaced on April 7, when  the Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced it wanted to close 23 under-performing state forest campgrounds in the northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula. The proposed closures were due to — what else — budget cuts. The state’s Forest Recreation Program has seen a 63-percent decrease in funding in the last three years.

Read my original post here.

General Fund support for state forest recreation programs, such as the state forest campgrounds (which are rustic and remote campgrounds and not to be confused with state park campgrounds), has been reduced every year since 2009, when $72,200 was cut. In 2010, $24,100 was cut from the program, and in Fiscal Year 2011, the program is targeted for a $314,700 General Fund reduction.

Related to this, DNR officials also announced today that the 1 millionth Recreation Passport had been sold. The Passport is the state's brand new funding mechanism. The program began Oct. 1, 2010, and at $10 each the voluntary Recreation Passports have now brought in $10 million. The previous system garnered $11 million annually, so it's safe to say the Recreation Passport will surpass the previous system by the time Oct. 1, 2011 rolls around.