As GOP targets Michigan DNR, Ted Nugent blasts agency’s ‘insane’ regulations

• In remarks before House committees Wednesday, Nugent complained about state policies on deer baiting, feral pigs, sandhill cranes and mourning doves
• The meeting was the latest flashpoint in a brewing battle between House Republicans and state wildlife regulators
• It comes as the Michigan Department of Natural Resources seeks license fee increases to grow its budget

Clad in gray camo while standing, shouting and repeatedly turning his back on legislators to address the audience in a Michigan Capitol meeting room, Ted Nugent accused state wildlife regulators Wednesday of being ‘the enemies of conservation.”

It was the latest flashpoint in a brewing battle between House Republicans, many of whom have long complained about state fish and game policies, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, whose leaders want lawmakers to boost their budget by raising fish and game license prices.

During a joint meeting of three committees in the Republican-led House, the Michigan-born rocker-turned-conservative activist ran through a laundry list of hunting-related laws and policies he finds objectionable.

The state’s ban on raising certain breeds of pigs deemed invasive — which has gotten Nugent crosswise with state regulators in the past — is “bizarro,” he said.

Sandhill cranes, a protected species in Michigan, are “grossly underutilized” and should be open for hunting, he said, as should mourning doves.

The state’s ban on deer baiting is “insanity” and the people who enforce it “would qualify as insane” too, he added. 

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Other invited guests and Republican lawmakers raised concerns about everything from conservation officers enforcing hunting regulations on private land to regulations on deer meat processors and impacts on farmers from policies that protect coldwater streams. 

In an email to Bridge Michigan, agency spokesperson Ed Golder defended DNR policies and highlighted the agency’s work to manage parks and forests, fight fires, conduct outdoor rescues and boost fish and wildlife numbers. 

“Michigan’s natural and cultural resources are at the heart of who we are as a state,” Golder said. “DNR employees work hard every day to manage and protect those resources for the people of the state. That’s not failure by any measure.”

Nugent’s remarks elicited cheers from his fans and eyerolls from foes, one of whom argued lawmakers should spend their time passing a balanced budget by their self-imposed July 1 deadline rather than debating hunting policies.

“The fact that we're sitting here talking about salt licks and feral pigs when we are a month away from a deadline to get a budget passed … I think it’s shameful,” said state Rep. Regina Weiss, D-Oak Park. 

Among the smallest state agencies, the DNR makes up just 1% of the state budget but has a highly visible role enforcing fish and wildlife laws and managing state parks.

House Republicans this session have focused heavily on what they argue is a heavy-handed approach to enforcement that drives hunters and anglers away from the sports.

Led by state Rep. Angela Rigas, R-Caledonia, the newly created House Weaponization of State Government Committee has devoted three of its seven meetings so far to gathering testimony from DNR critics.

“We have listened to several instances and cases of extreme overreach and downright abuse from the department,” said Rigas, who has previously called the DNR a “failing” agency.

Meanwhile, House leadership has tapped a longtime DNR critic to lead the subcommittee that oversees its budget. State Rep. Ken Borton, R-Gaylord, whose path to public office began with a 2010 conflict with the agency over deer baiting, has threatened to “defund” the DNR “into oblivion.” 

The unusual scrutiny comes as Republicans seek to use the DNR budget as a bargaining chip to win votes for fish and wildlife-related policy reforms, such as the legalization of deer baiting.

Largely absent from the conversation has been the DNR itself. Golder told a Bridge Michigan reporter that DNR staff have not been invited to the committee meetings but would “welcome the opportunity to supply factual information.”

Wednesday was not Nugent’s first time visiting Lansing to blast policies including the deer baiting ban, which the state enacted in 2018 in hopes of stopping the spread of chronic wasting disease. 

The fatal brain disease is caused by proteins contained in animals’ feces, urine and saliva, which can spread through direct contact between deer or through the soil or water. There is no vaccine or known treatment for the disease, which has spread to 14 Lower Peninsula counties. 

Experts say deer baiting can be a vector because it encourages deer to gather in one place and eat from the same pile. That spreads illness in the same manner as humans drinking from the same cup. 

The state’s largest hunting advocacy organization, the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, has long supported the DNR’s deer baiting ban and its prohibition on certain types of hogs, arguing a failure to contain disease and invasive species threats poses a risk to Michigan’s game species and, therefore, the state’s hunters.

“We support the conservation of wildlife, and in doing so, we want to reduce disease risk and promote native species and reduce emerging threats, whatever they might be,” said Amy Trotter, the group’s chief executive officer. “In order to fulfill that mission, there have to be regulations.”

Some hunters and lawmakers argue the baiting ban is misguided, given that Michigan still allows private landowners to plant corn plots that attract deer in similar ways. Others, including Nugent, simply don’t believe experts’ warnings that bait piles can spread disease.

“According to the DNR, the (Natural Resources Commission), those billions of apples falling from the trees in Michigan are somehow going to cause a disease if I move them,” he said Wednesday. “That's insanity.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2019 vetoed a previous bill to repeal the baiting ban, saying at the time that the risk of spreading disease among wild deer and domesticated livestock  is “not a risk we can afford to take.”

But since then, stagnant revenue from hunting and fishing licenses and rising inflation have left the DNR hard-up for money, and agency officials have come to the Legislature for help. 

Bipartisan bills in the Democrat-controlled state Senate would boost the DNR budget by raising hunting and fishing fees last updated in 2014 and making Michigan’s currently optional state parks pass a mandatory $10 purchase when Michiganders renew their vehicle registration. 

Borton, who chairs the House subcommittee on the DNR budget and sits on the chamber’s Appropriations Committee, has blasted the Senate proposal as “the most unserious, disappointing, and embarrassing budget proposal I’ve seen in a very long time.”

Trotter, of the United Conservation Clubs, said her group supports it, reasoning that hunters and anglers benefit when the DNR has enough staff and resources to do its job.

House Republicans’ focus on the DNR comes as no surprise to state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, a Democratic member of the weaponization committee who called it “a byproduct of the state of play right now with divided chambers.” 

Pohutsky said she supports legislative scrutiny of government overreach in concept, but wants to hear DNR officials’ side of the story. 

As for Nugent’s appearance Wednesday, Pohutsky said she was “skeptical” about its utility.

“I think that Ted Nugent is just more about personality than substance,” she said. “And I think he's probably just there to try and get some headlines and say some negative things about the DNR.”