The state maintains a system for adding especially valuable forests and wild lands to the public domain, and for trading or selling parcels deemed too far-flung and expensive to manage well. The management of state lands has become increasingly political as the Engler Administration and the Legislature have intervened to make or influence decisions that historically had been overseen by agency professionals. Among the most important changes in the last decade is in the program to trade or sell state lands. In the past, the process began with formal requests from developers or other landowners to trade public land for parcels of equal or greater value. In 1989 the Legislature established the Land Exchange Facilitation Fund, a revolving account for conducting land sales and trades.
Land is appraised, and sold at or above fair market value.
The fund makes it possible for the DNR to sell land without receiving other property in return, and to use the proceeds to buy land for parks and state forests. And, as the next three articles describe, Lansing now is opening up more ways for private interests to tap into state lands. G Diane Conners is a former environmental reporter for the Traverse City Record-Eagle.