BY GEORGE WEEKS
Syndicated Columnist
December 10, 2007 04:00 am There's a tentative $5 million deal to supplement the Department of Natural Resources budget and avoid the immediate need for the hike in hunting and fishing fees that the Legislature has refused to enact. But it's a one-time move that does not address the need to ensure adequate funding to conserve and protect Michigan's natural resources. Rep. Joel Sheltrown, D-West Branch, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said House leaders and Granholm, who supported the fee hikes, have agreed to tap the general fund to supplement DNR funding and avoid further layoffs. While Granholm would avoid having to go to the mat for fee hikes, administration officials say details have yet to be completed. Legislative approval is likely but not assured. If there's any fight left in the beleaguered governor after her long and bitter struggle to pass a budget, she should use it to assure adequate long-term funding. It's inadequate now. The future is bleak if the Legislature and the governor fail to meet needs and to face up to consequences of warnings voiced across the state by Director Becky Humphries of the Department of Natural Resources. "Humphries sees conservation disaster looming," the Charlevoix-based North Woods Call headlined in citing a one-third cut in wildlife staff; law enforcement down from 190 to 141; fisheries down from 270 to 160. The Call, which I long ago dubbed "Mother Nature's Watchdog," said: "Michigan ranks at the bottom in state financial support for conservation, though it has more freshwater than any other state and more state forest land than any other Eastern state." The watchdog is barking up the right tree in calling for Granholm in her second term to deliver on pledges made when she first sought the office. "For starters," her call for reconstituting a full service DNR, which lost its environmental protection responsibilities when then-Gov. John Engler created the Department of Environmental Quality. The DEQ during that administration had a business tilt. I asked Granholm if she still tilts toward a single agency. "No--" unless there "is a compelling reason" that she does not now see. Since her position of eight years ago, "now that it has been in place so long, the systems themselves have adjusted, and adjusted pretty well. So I am not sure that the recombination would ... I know it wouldn't get much savings at all -- and I think it might detract from the expertise that each agency brings." She contends her cabinet system fosters DNR-DEQ coordination where needed. During budget talks last year, an idea was floated to combine all resource agencies, including the Department of Agriculture. Granholm wisely rejected it. Agriculture needs a clear voice. While, in my view, re-integration of DNR's pre-Engler responsibilities still makes sense, the more immediate need is winning voter approval of what Humphries described to the Call as a "permanent, untouchable" fund to support natural resources. She told the Petoskey News-Review: "We're hopeful that we'll be able to come up with some long-term, stable funding source for natural resource management because we've certainly taken reductions from the general fund over the last decade. It's been substantial." The general fund once contributed about 25 percent of the DNR budget. Of late, it has been single digits. Sheltrown is drafting legislation to permanently dedicate a portion of the sales tax paid on sporting goods to conservation funding. Meanwhile, here's hoping Granholm's State of the State message next month will include a ringing call for action on ensuring adequate and stable funding to conserve and protect precious resources for enjoyment of all. Leadership is needed. Sisterhood with Mother Nature. George Weeks retired after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.
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