Michigan plans to clear more than 400 acres of state forest near Gaylord for a solar farm

GAYLORD, MI – A 420-acre swath of state forest land will be cleared for a solar farm near Gaylord under a lease agreement with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, a top state official confirmed ‘State.

DNR officials recently assessed 1,200 acres of public land in Otsego County, near a major power line, to decide whether it was suitable for solar panels. Agency leaders ultimately decided to lease 35% of this land to support other adjacent solar projects already underway.

This comes as the DNR faces reduction in revenue from hunting and fishing licensesand Michigan falls behind in building enough renewable energy quickly enough risk not encountering a key state climate goal – 100% clean energy by 2040.

Leasing 4,000 acres of public land across the state is part of the DNR’s plan to address both issues in the coming years. Officials said the state’s solar initiative could begin just west of Gaylord.

Forest for the trees

A public notice announcing a request for bids for solar proposals on 420 acres of state land in Otsego County’s Hayes Township is expected to be published in the coming days in the Gaylord newspaper and on the DNR website, confirmed Scott Whitcomb, director of the DNR Office of Public Lands.

He said the DNR would schedule a public hearing if requested by local governments and enough members of the public.

MLive filed a Freedom of Information Act request for digital documents and files associated with the project on October 21, 2024, which remains pending.

State policymakers know this choice will be criticized, Whitcomb said.

“Not incredibly popular with everyone.” I will be frank about this.

Land deforestation for renewable energy has become the focus of recent scientific studies. Evidence of both Harvard University And Chinese Researchers show that the loss of carbon dioxide-gobbling forests to solar installations leads to a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions – the air pollution that fuels the accelerating climate crisis.

This means that it is counterproductive to the climate fight to clear forests, even for renewable energy sources that do not emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It’s simply how beautiful the forests are to transform carbon dioxide into oxygen through natural photosynthesis.

Some of the acreage in question near Gaylord had already been clear-cut and replanted with red pine seedlings, a favorite of the lumber industry. Other parts remain forested and home to oil and gas wellheads.

But the most important factor at the site remains the nearby high-voltage transmission line.

Expanding a planned 200-megawatt solar farm onto an adjacent privately owned 420 acres of “less than pristine” public land bisected by a large existing power line would reduce the need to build even more connecting power lines, Whitcomb said.

He argued that it was a question of infrastructure logistics for this stretch of national forest that might not be available elsewhere, on other, even more modified lands.

“You might have a degraded site and it’s not close to an interconnection, or if it’s close to an interconnection it might not be in a place where the network can take the electrons ” Whitcomb said.

He said the DNR must decide whether it can lose This peculiar forest at the 45th parallel in rural Otsego County.

“I would prefer to expand the development here a little bit and avoid creating new development elsewhere that would have the same impacts,” he said.

The problem is that the Michigan’s Healthy Climate Plan specifically says to “avoid land use conversion that results in a net increase in (greenhouse gas) emissions and to prioritize land uses that reduce (greenhouse gas) emissions.” » in the section on protecting Michigan’s land and water.

Whitcomb said he hopes to alleviate this conflict by using a portion of the DNR’s future solar rental revenue to purchase other lands that may be more beneficial for wildlife habitat connectivity, public access needs and sequestration carbon.

But that’s not the plan for all the revenue expected from solar rentals.

“We don’t give this land away for free,” Whitcomb said. “This rental income can be devoted to natural resource management. So, I wouldn’t say that’s the only reason, but it’s something that we’re thinking about. Ultimately, we have to pay for the activities of this agency one way or another.