Get all your fishing information here, including rules and regulations, license info, the weekly fishing report and much more. Use the link above to visit the fishing home page, or go directly to your area of interest below:
Get all your hunting information here, including hunting season dates, rules and regulations, and much more. Use the button above to visit the hunting home page, or go directly to your area of interest below:
Information on DNR shooting and archery ranges, rules and regulations, resources to get started and more. Use the button above to visit the target shooing and archery home page, or go directly to one of the pages below:
Find snowmobile trail permit info, maps, rules and regulations and more. USE THE BUTTON ABOVE TO VISIT THE SNOWMOBILE HOMEPAGE or go directly to you area of interest below:
Want to find tasty morel mushrooms in the forest? Click the box above for tips and tricks to fill your basket.
Find cross-country ski, ice fishing , snowmobiling info and much more.
Find facility info, overnight info, an event calendar and much more.
Find a great trail experience near you - whether you want to hike, bike, snowmobile or ride an ORV. From long, paved linear trails to rugged forest terrain, Michigan offers trail opportunities for all abilities and interests.
Visitor Centers across the state provide education programs, field trips, archery, fishing, trails and much more. Click the box above to see all our locations, or click the individual location below.
We administer grants that enable our local partners to promote the lifestyles we all enjoy by providing recreational opportunities, enhancing wildlife habitat and ensuring public safety. Visit the grants home page by clicking on the button above, or view a specific area of interest below:
Recreational Safety and Hunter Education
Learn about Michigan's diverse range of fish, plants, trees, reptiles, amphibians, insects and mammals. Click the box above to see all species, or click the species group below.
DNR educators across the state provide fun, educational activities, programs and workshops year-round for adults, families and kids. Click the box above to see all our offerings, or click the program below.
DNR educators provide classroom lessons, field trip opportunities, professional development and experiential programs to teachers around the state. Click the box above to see all our offerings, or click the program below.
DNR forest resources professionals maintain healthy forests, manage wildfire, maintain responsible harvesting certifications and improve wildlife habitat. Click the box above to learn more about Michigan's state forests.
All DNR-related boards, committees, and advisory groups
Find seasonal, part-time and full-time job openings with the DNR
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At the heart of our work is a commitment to conserving, protecting, and managing our state’s natural and cultural resources to ensure their use and enjoyment for current and future generations. Climate change is currently impacting Michigan’s natural resources, and those impacts are predicted to grow increasingly severe. It is important to the long-term health and future of Michigan’s native fish, wildlife, and ecosystems that we address climate change. The DNR has an important role to play in the state’s energy transition. This includes reducing our energy waste and siting renewable energy infrastructure, particularly solar, which is an important component of Michigan’s clean energy future.
The DNR is the largest landowner in Michigan, managing 4.6 million acres of public land for the benefit of all Michiganders. The DNR manages this diverse portfolio of lands for a number of different values – forestry, public recreation, hunting, fishing and wildlife habitat management. For decades, the DNR has also leased a portion of public lands for a variety of public goods, including industrial development. State land is currently leased for gas and oil wells and processing facilities, pipelines and flowlines, mines, sand and gravel pits, an asphalt plant and cell phone towers. All of these uses are carefully regulated, meet high standards of environmental care, and demonstrate the variety of state land uses that can benefit residents and the economy. The DNR’s approach to land management and leasing balances the state’s economic needs with our mission of conservation and sustainability, making public lands work for everyone.
The DNR supports the renewable energy transition and continues to play a significant role in facilitating energy production on public lands, including fossil fuels, such as oil and gas and renewable energies like solar, to meet basic human energy needs across the state.
Utility-scale solar projects are a crucial step toward achieving the state’s clean energy goals and we expect some of our state lands can be used for solar development. Not every acre proposed for development is compatible. The DNR intends to lease strategically to minimize the amount of land developed for solar and does not intend to have widespread conversions. To date, fewer than 1,500 acres of DNR managed public land have been leased for solar development. In total, we expect fewer than 4,000 acres will be leased – less than one-tenth of one percent of the 4.6 million acres of state managed public land, and significantly less than the number of acres currently leased, just over 350,000 acres, for gas and oil wells on state lands. Since 1928, more than 10,000 drilling permits have been issued on state managed forest lands.
The DNR approaches solar development with careful planning and a commitment to limiting negative impacts and enhancing benefits. Solar is not a good fit for just any site, so each project begins with a thorough evaluation of potential sites on public lands. To date, the DNR has evaluated over 30,000 acres for potential solar development. Most of those acres have been found incompatible with solar energy. Sites that are selected for solar energy development are carefully vetted to minimize environmental, cultural, and habitat concerns.
The DNR will implement practices on solar sites that mitigate negative impacts and provide additional benefits. Planting and maintaining native vegetation minimizes soil degradation and erosion, while also benefitting pollinators, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and small mammals. Project design elements such as fencing and panel height can also be adjusted to be more wildlife friendly. The DNR also allocates a portion of the revenue generated from leasing land for solar development to buy lands to replace acre for acre those used for solar. In doing this we can ensure that solar projects on public land will result in no net loss of public access, timber production, or wildlife habitat.
General and public comment contact information:
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
ATTN: Solar Proposal
P.O. Box 30028
Lansing, MI 48909
DNR-SolarProposal@michigan.gov
Deadline for Otsego County solar project public comment:
5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30th, 2025
DNR field staff recently reviewed approximately 1,200 acres of state land for a potential utility-scale solar development site. These lands were considered because there is a solar project being built on adjacent private lands and it is favorable to consolidate those disturbances. In addition, this land is near transmission lines, making it advantageous for this type of development to minimize impacts and costs of additional infrastructure to reach the grid.
Of the 1,200 acres reviewed, 420 acres of this land in Hayes Township in Otsego County were identified to put forward for possible solar development leasing. The proposed site was carefully selected based on factors such as the existing isolated public land ownership and the large-scale land change due to the development of adjacent land and may be offered for lease through a Request for Proposals and a competitive bid process in the future.
The process of potentially leasing this land will involve considerable opportunity for public comment and input.
Siting utility-scale solar on state forest land requires thoughtful planning and site selection to minimize impacts but does not inherently result in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Assuming that every megawatt of solar-generated electricity added to the grid results in one megawatt of fossil fuel-generated electricity removed from the grid, the reduction in carbon dioxide over the 20–30-year life of a solar facility is about 100 times more than the carbon dioxide reduction from forest carbon sequestration.
Yes. Even northern Michigan gets enough sun to make a large-scale solar facility an effective, cost-competitive method of producing electricity. Additionally, solar panels operate more efficiently in cold temperatures like in Michigan, as compared to warmer regions.
No. When solar panels are blanketed with snow, they do not produce electricity. However, the annual loss of productivity due to snow cover is quite small. Solar panels shed snow effectively because they absorb the sun’s heat as well as its light. The panels are mounted at an angle, facing the sun, and they are slippery. Snow slides off quickly and prevents the panels from being covered for lengthy periods of time.
No. The state forest lands that contain the Pine Baron Pathway are not included in the potential sites for solar development.
