Citing massive increases in hunting, fishing and trapping fees — and a litany of other issues — lawmakers are going hard after their own State Department of Natural Resources.

Michigan State Reps. Ken Borton and Angela Rigas on Thursday highlighted ongoing investigations and corresponding work on the budget plan regarding Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The lawmakers said work must continue on the budget due to the sheer amount of waste, fraud, and abuse entrenched within the DNR’s daily operations.

“It’s no secret that I’ve been at odds with the DNR for a long time,” said Borton, R-Gaylord. “But it’s hard not to be when, for decades, they’ve taken our taxpayer resources and used them against us. That changes with our DNR budget plan for next year. Eyebrows will raise when you see the amount of junk we’re going to carve out of that department.”

Since Republicans came into control of the state House in January, Borton and Rigas have tried working with DNR leadership collaboratively to find solutions to the many problems plaguing Michigan sportsmen and natural resource management operations. However, the lawmakers said the DNR has been completely unreceptive to his attempts to work together on real changes.

“It’s baffling to me how I can extend an olive branch to the DNR, and they’ll immediately break the branch at the stem and throw it in the same politicized, corrupt fire that’s been fueling the department for years,” Borton said. “They have no interest in changing, so we’ll have to do it for them.”

The lack of transparency from the DNR led to Rigas and the larger House Oversight Committee subpoenaing the DNR for information regarding their many attempts to weaponize state government. The subpoenas only came after the DNR failed to meet reasonable deadlines for information requested by Rigas and her committee.

“I never would’ve guessed that over 90% of the issues I’ve worked on as chair of the House Committee on Government Weaponization would be regarding the DNR,” said Rigas, R-Caledonia. “The DNR has backlogged our committee with the sheer number of ways they’ve used their department against the public. Historically, the DNR has waited out lawmakers who targeted their weaponization tactics through term limits. Luckily for us, recent changes to term limits mean many of us could be here for another ten years.”

Even in the face of immense public pressure, the DNR has continued pushing and defending controversial initiatives like massive increases to hunting and fishing licenses, mandatory recreation passports for every vehicle, euthanasia campaigns against Canada Geese, clear-cutting forests for solar panels, legal attacks on honest hog farmers, over-regulation of taxidermists, and the Open Field Doctrine – which allows conservation officers to completely disregard private property rights.

“The more we looked into the DNR, the more we realized they literally have a slush fund they use to weaponize state government against the public,” Rigas said. “They pay people to lobby lawmakers to raise hunting and fishing licenses so they can afford to euthanize geese. They pay people to mount pressure campaigns to force every driver into a recreation passport so they can continue to wage legal war on hog farmers and taxidermists. The DNR’s bad behavior will soon be on full display, and they’re not getting away with it this time.”

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