DNR Mission
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is committed to the conservation, protection, management, use and enjoyment of the state’s natural resources for current and future generations.

Michigan DNR and Natural Resource Facts:

• Approximately 1,600 permanent employees and more than 1,200 seasonal employees implement over 70 programs under the supervision of DNR Director Rebecca A. Humphries and her management team.
• Michigan has 11,000 inland lakes.
• Michigan has 3,000 miles of freshwater shoreline—more than any other state in the nation.
• Michigan has more total shoreline than any state except Alaska.

Fisheries

• Michigan has 36,000 miles of rivers and streams, including 1,000 miles of blue ribbon trout streams.
• In Michigan, you're never more than six miles from great fishing.
• Nearly 2.5 million anglers fish Michigan waters each year.
• The DNR has six fish hatcheries, which produce more than 750,000 pounds of fish every year. Forty percent of all recreational fishing in Michigan depends on stocked fish, including 70% of the Great Lakes trout and salmon fishery.

Wildlife

• Michigan's two scenic peninsulas provide 8 million acres of public hunting land, including 4.5 million acres managed by DNR.
• The DNR leases nearly 20,000 acres of farmland in southern Michigan for public hunting and 2.2 million acres of private forestland in northern Michigan, enrolled as commercial forests, provide even more hunting access.
• The DNR manages 400,000 acres in more than 70 state wildlife areas, most in southern Michigan.
• The DNR manages and protects 400 species of animals, including the birds and mammals that sustain our rich hunting heritage and nongame wildlife, including threatened and endangered species.
• Michigan leads the nation in hunting white-tailed deer. More than 750,000 hunters took part in the 2004 deer seasons. According to DNR estimates, the total harvest from all seasons exceeded 450,000 deer.
• Hunters also spend 3 million hunter-days afield in pursuit of our most popular small-game species, including the cottontail rabbit, fox squirrel, ruffed grouse and ring-necked pheasant.
• More than 60 percent of Michigan's residents are actively involved in viewing and photographing wildlife.

Parks and Recreation

• In Michigan, you are never more than an hour's drive from a state park or recreation area.
• Michigan's 97 state parks and recreation areas welcome more than 22 million visitors each year.
• The DNR maintains 16 of the Great Lakes 85 public harbors.
• Michigan has more than 1,300 public boating access sites; 829 of these locations are owned by the Parks and Recreation Division and 814 of these are maintained by the division.
• Michigan registers more boats (nearly1 million) and snowmobiles (390,000) than any other state.

Forest, Mineral and Fire Management

• The DNR manages the largest state forest system in the nation (3.9 million acres).
• Michigan is a leader in rails-to-trails, maintaining more than 6,200 miles of groomed snowmobile trails.
• Michigan’s 145 state forest campgrounds offer 3,000 rustic campsites.
• Widely differing forest cover and ownership patterns throughout Michigan provide unique management challenges and opportunities. For example, 90% of our population resides in southern Michigan, while 90% of the Upper Peninsula is forested.
• In addition to managing 12% of the state's total land area, the DNR manages 6 million acres of mineral estate and leases rights to explore for oil and gas.
• Nearly 50,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled in Michigan—about 12,000 are active.
• The development of oil, gas and other minerals on state-owned lands contributes $20-$30 million annually to the Natural Resources Trust Fund. Without the Trust Fund, no additional parks and recreation lands would be acquired.

“The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others.” Theodore Roosevelt