Displaying items tagged: Michigan Department of Natural Resources

GRAND RAPIDS — Jeff Courter’s tech company is taking aim at a larger and more captive audience than it ever has in its young history.

The state is moving to terminate an agreement that has allowed the Line 5 pipeline to operate in the Straits of Mackinac for the past 67 years, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a bombshell environmental announcement Friday.

In a state with a $26 billion outdoor recreation economy, the proposed federal Great American Outdoors Act is welcomed news among conservation advocates and could bolster the backlog of deferred maintenance projects at Michigan’s national and state parks.

Plagued by high water, COVID-19 business closures and canceled festivals, officials in lakeshore communities are developing plans to bring visitors back to restaurants and lodging in hopes of tourists’ return this summer. 

Some Grand Rapids residents have never stepped foot in the Grand River. In fact, a very small population of people currently use the river to recreate.

A broad statewide partnership is examining what it would take to reintroduce a native fish that disappeared from Michigan waters more than 80 years ago.

Keith Creagh had the less-than-desirable front-row seat to much of the state’s response effort to the ongoing Flint water crisis. A longtime director of several state government agencies, Creagh was tapped to head the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality following the resignation of the previous director in January. Now the director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Creagh spoke with MiBiz in early November after his appearance on a panel related infrastructure and its relationship to health.

A consortium of academics, government officials and industry leaders wants to refocus the state on wood products and create a hub for bio-materials produced from Michigan’s forests.