A news investigation is exposing more state forests considered “suitable” for solar development by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, which paused its plans to clear cut 4,000 acres amid public outrage earlier this year.

“Although the DNR says it already reviewed more than 30,000 acres for solar potential from among 4.6 million acres of public trust land it manages statewide, the agency released details of just 4,800 acres” through a Freedom of Information Act request from MLive.

“When asked how many more sites are highlighted in the system, DNR spokesperson Ed Golder said to seek that information through FOIA,” according to the news site. “He also said maps from their internal GIS system that show those additional locations are not actually public records.”

The DNR’s reluctance to share the public information with the public follows fierce blowback from environmentalists and the public last year over revelations the department is working to clear cut 4,000 acres of state forest to lease to solar developers.

DNR officials contend the plan is focused on bolstering Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s goal of forcing 100% “clean energy” by 2040, while boosting revenues for the DNR.

Documents obtained by MLive through its public information request reveal areas in the Mackinaw and Pere Marquette state forests near Fife Lake and Mancelona the DNR deemed “suitable” for solar in 2021, along with others that were previously highlighted near Gaylord and Roscommon.

The lands include 602 acres of mostly forested property in the Mackinaw State Forest east of Mancelona, as well as 426 acres northeast of Fife Lake in the Pere Marquette State Forest.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

“The maps show most of the 602 acres of public land were purchased when property owners fell behind on taxes, though two smaller parcels were bought with restricted state game funds. Inventory of tree stands show the acreage includes hardwoods, aspen and planted pines,” according to MLive.

“The 426-acre site by Fife Lake similarly includes aspen and planted pine,” the news site reports. “But the acreage is distinctive in its proximity to forested-shrub wetlands, according to released state maps.”

DNR officials defended its plans to clear cut state forests for solar after the news site earlier this year exposed plans to lease a 420-acre site near Gaylord ignited widespread outrage.

The DNR argues the effort targets lands “ill-suited for other uses,” and includes a focus on pairing leases with “tandem land acquisition to recoup the lost acreage.”

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

The proposed Gaylord area lease, initially published as a public notice with no community input, prompted calls from lawmakers to terminate DNR officials involved in the decision and a promise to probe the department’s efforts to install solar on state forests.

“Projects like this highlight the blatant hypocrisy within the DNR. You’re completely willing to jump into bed with the solar industry and the foreign powers controlling their purse strings but deny other smaller land-lease proposals without a second thought,” 50 state lawmakers wrote in a letter to DNR Director Scott Bowen. “You have a responsibility to be good stewards of public land – replacing forests with solar panels does not live up to that standard.”

The plan was also blasted by environmental and conservation groups, while internal DNR emails obtained by MLive revealed opposition within the department, as well.

Much of the concern centered on the folly of clear-cutting carbon-sequestering forest, and impacts to wildlife.

“The more research I do on deforestation for the sake of solar, especially as you start to scale that up, and for thousands of acres, that seems really short sighted,” Lisha Ramsdell, associate director for Huron Pines, a Gaylord-based conservation group, told MLive.

“Losing the trees is one thing, but you’re losing that biodiversity. You’re losing the habitat connectivity as well,” Ramsdell said. “And as you start to scale these up to into the thousands of acres, there’s potential compromise to our water resources, groundwater recharge areas. Our forest and our soil provide that filter system for our groundwater. And so those are all really important factors to be considered as well.”

“This proposal to cut down a living forest that is sequestering carbon and replace it with solar arrays just doesn’t track very well with the way we manage for sustainability,” said Larry Leefers, retired professor of forestry at Michigan State University.

The opposition prompted the DNR to pause its plans in January, with the exception of leases already in the works. The state has inked two contracts already, for brownfield sites at a small airport near Roscommon and an iron mine in the Upper Peninsula’s Dickenson County.

In recent months, DNR officials and some climate activists have continued to make the case for clear cutting state forests for solar, while others are demanding the DNR come clean with the public with full transparency on its plans.

“If solar is going to be built out at the scale that this state is committed to, it has to go somewhere,” Scott Whitcomb, director of DNR’s Office of Public Lands said at a state climate conference attended by MLive in Detroit.

“There simply isn’t enough low-conflict private land to be able to get us” to Whitmer’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, Ashley Rudzinski, climate director for the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities told the news site.

Justin Tomei, government affairs manager representing hunters and anglers at Michigan United Conservation Clubs, suggested the DNR should publicize the sites selected for solar, and how those sites are identified.

“They need to tell us all the lands that they considered,” he said. “They need to give us the scorecards. They need to give us one-to-one land transactions. They need to give us the definition of marginal lands.”