As 2016 winds down, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources concludes its year-long celebration marking the 40th anniversary of the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.
Since its inception in 1976, the Trust Fund has bankrolled more than 2,000 projects providing funding to local units of government and the DNR to purchase land and land rights or developing outdoor recreation projects. The fund is administered by the DNR.
The program was initially funded with state proceeds from royalties derived the sale of oil, gas and minerals and from leases. Today, recreation projects and land acquisitions are financed from investment income generated from the fund.
So far, more than $1 billion has been granted to local units of government and the DNR for land purchases or recreation projects big and small in all 83 Michigan counties.
DNR officials say they are just as proud of the numerous small and local grants they've awarded as the bigger, headline-generating, multi-million-dollar land acquisitions.
"All grant applications are scored on the same criteria," said Steve DeBrabander, manager of the DNR's grants management section. "The need for the project, the quality of the project, the recreational opportunity the project provides there's a long list of criteria and it doesn't matter if it's large or small."
In fact, the Trust Fund Board several years ago created two initiatives the small acquisition grant initiative and the small development grant initiative for small projects $100,000 or less for acquisition and $50,000 or less for development.
"For several years in a row, the Trust Fund Board chose to fund all applications under those initiatives," DeBrabander said.
Local projects make up a significant portion of Trust Fund grants annually.
DeBrabander said even a small project, like new restroom facilities in a local park, can make a big difference.
A 2014 grant to the city of Wakefield in Gogebic County, for work at Eddy Park on Sunday Lake, is a prime example. The grant funded rebuilding and remodeling the park restroom as well making the pier at the lake and the restrooms accessible to all.
"We're very happy to have the improvements to the park," said Wakefield city manager Richard Brackney. "It was necessary to do these things and it's really made a difference. We have had a great increase in visitors into the park."
In Republic in Marquette County, Republic Township supervisor John Ulrich said the money from the Trust Fund enabled the township to develop a new campground on land the township bought in 2004, but had been sitting vacant for a decade.
The township purchased pit toilets for the site, installed an RV dump station, and helped build the water system with its grant.
The township, which has been economically challenged since the Republic Mine closed in the 1990s, hopes the campground will help reinvigorate the community.
"I think it's very important to the township and will over time be a driver for drawing people from M-95 into the park," Ulrich said. "There's a campground 20 miles south of us and one on Lake Michigamme, but those are the two closest modern campgrounds."
Ulrich said the campground will attract vacationers and tourists; people who want to hike the Iron Ore Heritage Trail or view the old mining site as well as those who come to fish in the Michigamme River Basin or even visit the beach.
"It's not quite complete yet," Ulrich said. "We haven't had any campers yet, but we do have some reservations for next year. We expect campers in May."
Of course, not all local Trust Fund grants are small. Clark Lambros Park in Marquette the dream of a late, successful businessman would not have become a reality without the grant, said Michele Butler.
Butler, Lambros' significant other, said he had a piece of land on Lake Superior valued at $1.1 million that he wanted to donate to the city for a park, but the city couldn't afford to develop it.
So after Lambros died, Butler approached the Trust Fund with a proposal to sell the land to the city for $812,000, which the Trust Fund provided, with the difference in the value to serve as the local match.
Butler then donated the proceeds from the sale for development of the park.
"Clark was an immigrant from Greece he loved Marquette and wanted to give back to the community," Butler said. "If we just donated the land without the Trust Fund money, the city wouldn't have been able to get it done. The Trust Fund Board was so surprised that we were going to donate the funds back to build the park they wanted to hear it a couple of times."
Butler, who is active in the Lambros family business Vango's Pizza and Lounge, the oldest restaurant in Marquette said she's delighted in how things turned out.
"The most rewarding part is the universal access," she said. "It's the only place around where people who have kids with wheelchairs can get to the beach. We feel like we did the right thing here."
Gov. Rick Snyder visited the park this past summer and commemorated the Trust Fund 40th anniversary there, touring the site with Butler and members of her family.
Mindy Milos-Dale, director of the Oakland Township Parks and Recreation Department in Oakland County, said much of the 15-park system, begun in the 1970s, is "funded in good part with Trust Fund money."
"Many of those acres are the result of Trust Fund grants and some of the development was funded by the Trust Fund," she said. "We've had four acquisition grants and three development grants.
"We're big, big fans of the Trust Fund. It's just the most wonderful thing to see them putting up the money to preserve these lands. I'm just so proud to be a resident of Michigan."
Local projects can have an impact on people statewide.
Josh Zuiderveen, who was a consultant for Algoma Township, just north of Grand Rapids, said the West Michigan Archery Center, an archery education and practice facility, is bringing in visitors from all over the state.
The center, which is a Junior Olympics development facility, attracts "a lot of out-of-town visitors to our tournaments and coach certification classes," Zuiderveen said. "And with a national tournament now on the schedule of events, it'll bring people in from out-of-state as well."
Zuiderveen said the project was a collaborative effort on the part of "a bunch of people."
"It was the better part of a million dollars and the Trust Fund did most of the heavy lifting," he said.
Although some local projects spur economic growth, many simply improve the local quality of life.
Ralph Reznick, the village president at Dimondale in Eaton County, said a Trust Fund grant turned a vacant piece of land on the Grand River where folks walked their dogs into Danford Island Park, which is a center of activity.
The village used grant money to build a bridge to the island across the river, create better access to the area, and install a universally accessible canoe/kayak ramp.
"The use that area is getting just jumped exponentially," Reznick said. "Dog walking has increased so much that we're trying to develop a dog park. People from the state office building go there to eat their lunch. It's not uncommon to see people taking graduation pictures there, wedding pictures there it is getting tremendous use.
"Now it's a destination on the Grand River for kayakers and canoers, where people are putting in and taking out."
Reznick said the community had been trying to raise money to develop the park, but, because of the Trust Fund, all they needed to raise was the 25-percent match.
"This thing," Reznick concluded, "is huge."
Get more information on the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, including project and acquisition lists, upcoming deadlines and more at www.michigan.gov/mnrtf.
Published: Fri, Dec 30, 2016
