DNR chief: No safety worries in drilling under Hartwick Pines State Park

Keith Creagh is Director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

In recent weeks, discussion about oil and gas leasing on state-managed public lands in Michigan -- in particular at Hartwick Pines State Park -- has been noticeably abundant and robust. (See the Aug. 7 Bridge article on the subject.)

As director of the state Department of Natural Resources, I’d like to engage in that discussion by providing the following information, which I hope will help address the questions and comments we’ve been hearing from the public on this topic.

On July 31, the DNR announced that land within Hartwick Pines has been nominated for inclusion in the October 2014 Oil and Gas Lease Auction conducted by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Held regularly since 1929, these auctions provide critical revenue for the purchase and development of public recreation assets (through the Natural Resources Trust Fund) and, more recently, for the operation and maintenance of state parks (through the State Parks Endowment Fund).

To provide some historical perspective, it is worth noting that several of the parcels nominated for this auction were purchased with funds from the Natural Resources Trust Fund, operations at Hartwick Pines State Park are funded in part by the State Parks Endowment Fund, and in previous years, oil and gas parcels within the park have been both nominated and leased.

It is also pertinent to bear in mind that private land surrounds the park -- land where wells could be drilled regardless of what the state decides to do with public mineral rights. Because of the way oil and gas deposits are formed and connected underground, those wells on private land could drain public oil and gas assets whether or not a lease from the state is in place on the public land.

Ignoring these possibilities would be a failure on the part of the DNR to responsibly manage, and protect from inadvertent theft, the public’s valuable nonrenewable natural resources.

Protection of the natural resources found on and under state-managed lands is our first priority. Classification of nominated parcels is determined based on that overriding principle. Oil, gas and mineral rights parcels found within state parks and recreation areas, and other areas where drilling activity is not compatible with recreation or resource protection, are deemed leasable, nondevelopment.

This means drilling and other development related to oil, gas and mineral extraction may not take place on the surface of these state-managed lands without separate written permission from the DNR – an option that the Department does not entertain for leased parcels within state parks.

Consistent with this, parcels within Hartwick Pines State Park nominated for the October 2014 auction fall into the restrictive leasable, nondevelopment classification.

If the parcels were leased, resource extraction could potentially take place underground. However, none of the work could affect the surface of the spectacular state park that visitors enjoy every day. There could be no drilling pads, no wells, no pipelines, no roads – nothing people could see, nothing that would change the landscape or detract from the visitor experience.

How underground oil, gas and mineral resources are accessed once a lease is in place can vary and is subject to stringent regulation by the Department of Environmental Quality. Extraction from nominated parcels is not a given – on average, over the last 10 years, only 66 percent of parcels offered at auction have been leased, and only 10 percent of leased parcels are ever developed.

Best management of publicly owned oil, gas and mineral rights is not a new topic in Michigan. In fact, earlier this year I was approached by the nonprofit group Anglers of the Au Sable with a request to reclassify nominated parcels near the Au Sable River.

These concerns were heard and the parcels were reclassified as leasable, nondevelopment – an action that was supported by the group. The same prohibitions on surface development have been put in place for Hartwick Pines and any oil or gas leases currently in place in other Michigan state parks.

Simply put, the management of land at Hartwick Pines is consistent with how other, similar public land has been managed in Michigan. Thoughtful classifications of these areas will protect property held in the public trust. Those same classifications will ensure Michigan citizens are fairly compensated for any potential extraction of their resources and are not left empty-handed.

The nomination, classification and offering of oil, gas and mineral rights leases at auction is one way in which the DNR continues to show its commitment to wise management of the state’s natural resources. We will continue to prudently manage Michigan’s world-class natural resources so they are preserved and protected for current and future generations.

The state is taking comment on a proposal to lease land in and around Hartwick Pines State Park near Grayling for possible oil and gas exploration, but your letter must be sent by Sept. 5 (that’s Friday) to: Minerals Management Manager, DNR, P.O. Box 30452, Lansing, Michigan 48909-7952. An auction on the mineral leases is set for Oct. 29.