April 14, 2006

The Department of Environmental Quality announced plans today to create a new general permit to allow limited vegetation removal activities along Michigan’s Great Lakes coastline. The announcement follows the release of a report in March documenting the harmful effects of beach grooming activities on Michigan’s ecology, and the DEQ’s recommendation to allow provisions of the current law to expire as scheduled.

“The science is clearly telling us that clearing vegetation from Michigan’s coastline areas has a harmful effect on our state’s ecology,” said DEQ Director Steven E. Chester. “We believe that this general permit will strike the appropriate balance between protecting these natural shoreline areas and allowing Michigan’s citizens access to the water.”

A provision under the current law allows shoreline property owners in two pilot areas (Saginaw Bay and Grand Traverse Bay) to apply for a Director’s letter of authorization to clear vegetation from Great Lakes bottomlands in front of their properties. In view of the March 2006 report on the impacts of vegetation removal, the DEQ determined that the Director’s letter process does not provide for adequate review of potential resource impacts and has recommended to the Legislature that this provision be allowed to expire on June 5, 2006, as scheduled in the law.

The new general permit would allow the establishment and maintenance of a six-foot wide pathway designed to provide recreational access from an upland property to the water’s edge along the Great Lakes coast, where the growth of wetland vegetation may otherwise impede such access. Unlike the Director’s letters of approval, this general permit would be applicable statewide.

The DEQ will host community forums to share the results of the March 2006 report on the impacts of vegetation removal and help property owners and the public understand the changes under the new general permit. A meeting will be held in Bay City on Tuesday, May 2 from 7-9 pm at the Doubletree Hotel and in Traverse City on Wednesday, May 17 from 7-9 pm at the Water Studies Institute Classroom, Northwestern Michigan College’s Great Lakes Campus.

In addition, a formal public hearing will also be held to obtain public comment on the draft general permit before it is issued. The public hearing will be held on Tuesday, May 9 from 1-3 pm in the Lake Ontario Room, Third Floor, Library of Michigan in Lansing. The public record will be open for ten days following the public hearing. The draft general permit and the DEQ report on vegetation removal are available on the web at www.michigan.gov/deqwetlands.

Editor’s note: DEQ news releases are available on the department’s Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq.

“Protecting Michigan’s Environment, Ensuring Michigan’s Future”

Revised April 14, 2006 by Pat Watson