It’s a topic that could reasonably be expected to generate controversy: chopping down trees on state-managed Michigan forest land to enable installation of large arrays of private companies’ solar panels, in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. But with little to no public reaction, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has pursued leasing for multiple utility-scale solar projects on forested and other public lands the DNR manages over the past few years.
Those proposals, in the Upper Peninsula’s Dickinson County and in Crawford and Roscommon counties in the Lower Peninsula, were met with virtually no public response. But the latest proposal by the DNR to lease 420 acres of state-managed forest land near Gaylord for a solar development has blown up into a controversy, and has some — especially the new Republican majority in the state House of Representatives — questioning the entire effort.
State Rep. Ken Borton, R-Gaylord, said he learned about the proposed DNR lease of state forest land for solar development in Otsego County’s Hayes Township — where Borton lives — from an MLive.com report last week.
Solar panels at the Delta Solar Project west of Lansing. Utility-scale solar farms are causing conflicts in many rural areas in the state.
“I immediately started sharing it through my social media channels, and things just blew up,” Borton said. “My phone started ringing off the hook. People are extremely upset about it. They think it’s the wrong thing to do.
“You do not bulldoze forest to put up solar panels. That is just anti-everything you can think of when it comes to protecting our natural resources.”
Republican lawmakers demand answers
The public reaction to the Gaylord-area proposal also shone a light on another proposed solar project in Roscommon County’s Higgins Township, where a developer is finalizing a lease agreement with the DNR to evaluate more than 1,000 acres of state-managed land near Interstate 75 and a state airport for solar panel arrays.
Borton on Monday wrote an excoriating letter to DNR Director Scott Bowen, blasting the proposal to use state-managed forest lands for utility-scale solar development. The letter was signed by 51 other Michigan House Republicans and state Rep. Karen Whitsett, D-Detroit.
“We demand answers as to where flattening over 400 acres of forest to clear the way for foreign-built solar panels fits within your department’s mission,” Borton stated. “We also demand a thorough report on all DNR involvement with efforts to replace valuable natural resources with unproven green energy technologies.”
Though he didn’t sign onto Borton’s letter, state Rep. Mike McFall, D-Hazel Park, in a Facebook post called the proposed Gaylord-area solar lease “incredibly counterproductive” on DNR’s part.
“Studies have shown that deforestation for solar development often results in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions, undermining the benefits of renewable energy,” he stated.
McFall added that the DNR plan “directly contradicts the MI Healthy Climate Plan,” a plan stemming from an executive order by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to achieve 100% carbon-free energy generation in Michigan by 2040 and net-negative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the state after 2050.
The MI Healthy Climate Plan “calls to ‘avoid land-use conversion that causes a net increase in GHG emissions and prioritize land uses that reduce GHG emissions,'” McFall stated. “We can fight climate change and protect our forests. Let’s demand smarter solutions that align with our climate goals!”
DNR: Misinformation is fueling the outrage
The explosion of outrage over the Gaylord-area solar lease proposal admittedly caught DNR officials off guard, said Scott Whitcomb, director of the agency’s Office of Public Lands.
“As we’ve learned from this, we need to do a better job informing people on the front end of these,” he said.
The DNR has “been looking at our state land portfolio for potential utility-scale renewable energy sites since 2019,” Whitcomb said.
The Gaylord area proposal is the most recent consideration. The idea first proposed by solar development company RWE Clean Energy, based in San Diego, called for developing a solar array development on more than 1,000 acres of privately owned land adjacent to the DNR-managed land in Hayes Township.
The company’s interconnection study showed the nearby high-power transmission lines allowed it to potentially expand its project by up to 30%. “Given the proximity of the private land development, that weighed into our decision-making on this to go ahead and evaluate” the DNR-managed 240 acres for potential inclusion in the solar project, Whitcomb said.
Though RWE Clean Energy has since decided not to pursue additional development on the state land, the DNR is still planning to post a request for proposals to lease the land and evaluate its viability for solar, perhaps with another company willing to operate adjacent to the RWE project, Whitcomb said. In light of the public outcry since last week, DNR is proposing a 90-day public comment period on the Hayes Township proposal, and will develop email address and websites with accurate site maps, he said.
“We feel that is one of the things that has really hurt us here; there has been a lot of misinformation” about the size, location and condition of the property in question, he said.
“These lands are right outside of Gaylord — one parcel is almost off the runway of the airport there. Some of it is land that has been clear-cut already and replanted to seedlings that are maybe waist-high. There are high-voltage transmission lines that are around there. On the aerial photos, you can see the oil and gas paths that are in the area, the road network that’s in the area.
“This notion that this is the forest primeval is just not accurate.”
Borton pushed back on the DNR’s pushback.
“They are trying to downplay it as just a scrubby area in northern Michigan,” he said. “I’m in Hayes Township; that’s where I live. That property is not far from me. So they are not kidding me when they tell me this isn’t some of the nicest property in northern Michigan.”
DNR\’s first public lands leasing for solar power was in 2020
The DNR manages 4.6 million acres of state-owned land. Most is dedicated as state forests, parks, recreation areas, water access sites and wildlife areas for use and enjoyment by the public — but not all.
“There is this connotation that state lands are only used for recreation or wildlife habitats or forest products,” Whitcomb said. “We have oil and gas development, sand and gravel development, metallic mineral operations. We’ve had landfills in the past on state land; we have an asphalt plant located on state land right now. In the past, correctional facilities have been located on state land.
“For us to consider renewable energy, that’s not all that different from some of those other uses where society says, ‘You are the largest landowner in the state of Michigan; can you play a role in our societal need?'”
The DNR in 2020 leased 264 acres of state-managed lands in the Upper Peninsula’s Dickinson County to Circle Power, a renewable energy development company that’s part of the Hunt Companies based in El Paso, Texas. The so-called Groveland Mine site is a former mine tailings location, “so it’s a very degraded, post-industrial site,” Whitcomb said, and the DNR land office’s “first foray into renewable energy.”
“That project is going through all of the interconnect studies and the permitting,” Whitcomb said. “That project is on a brownfield site that the DNR owns that was given to the state of Michigan.”
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The DNR in 2020 also granted Circle Power a lease to explore solar development at the Seven Mile Pit, an expended gravel pit in Crawford County.
“That one sat around for five years; they could never figure out how to develop it or make that a viable project,” Whitcomb said. “And this December, that land reverted to the state of Michigan.”
The Roscommon area project involves approximately 1,050 acres of DNR-managed public land in Roscommon County’s Higgins Township near I-75 and the DNR Conservation Airport, “but the maximum buildable size of that would be 570” acres for solar panels, he said.
“What (Circle Power is) doing is trying to figure out of the 1,000-plus acres, which acres make the most sense to put panels on? But the maximum buildable size would be 570” acres, Whitcomb said.
The Roscommon site makes sense because solar arrays will help the state with the existing problem of keeping trees out of FAA-regulated runway paths, said Patrick Mohney, DNR senior lands program manager, who is managing the so-called Conservation Airport Site.
Along with I-75, “it’s an area that’s already disturbed, highly disturbed,” Mohney said. “It’s really not converting a high-quality forest to something different.”
The Roscommon solar proposal was “publicly noticed according to the statutory requirements, (and) no one responded with any concerns about that,” Whitcomb said.
The lease option gives Circle Power the opportunity to assess the property and study its viability for solar. Actual building of a solar project would require a surface use permit that would involve DNR and public input.
“There’s a lot of misinformation,” Mohney said. “The information out there is enough to get people really wound up. But when you really start looking at it, there’s a lot more to it.”
DNR officials have internally set a maximum limit for any amount of state-managed forest lands that could be included in renewable energy leases — 4,000 acres statewide, Whitcomb said. The number, which Whitcomb admits was “a bit arbitrary,” came from evaluating potential sites statewide, projecting “a couple of projects in the Lower Peninsula and a couple of projects in the Upper Peninsula.””I would say the 4,000 (acres) is the uppermost limit that we would ever do, and it will probably be much less than that,” he said.
The state gets a nominal fee from renewable energy companies during the exploratory phase of a lease, about $10 per acre per year, Whitcomb said. At the Groveland site, should it become operational, the rate jumps to $800 per acre per year for the duration of operation. The funds would go to the DNR’s Forest Development Fund.
“We have made a commitment that any lands leased for solar, we would use some of the proceeds to buy replacement lands so there would be no net loss of public access or forest,” he said.
But Borton rejects the DNR being involved in facilitating large solar arrays on state forest lands at all. He also rejected comparisons to state leases for oil and gas wells, which he said take up far less space and have far less disturbance to neighbors or wildlife. Otsego County is one of the cloudiest places in Michigan, and gets snow-covered “from mid-November to May.”
“These two (the Otsego and Roscommon County proposed solar projects) we just uncovered by accident,” Borton said. “The DNR is not working with local officials; they don’t feel they have to. They are going to do this until somebody steps up and stops them, and I plan on being that guy.”
Contact Keith Matheny: kmatheny@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: DNR proposes to lease state-managed forest lands to solar developers