Headlines From The Outdoors

NRC Commisioners, DNR Director Discover DRIP Funds Not Spent “Wisely”

At Thursday's Natural Resources Commission meeting, the Natural Resources Commission, along with DNR Director Rebecca Humphries, announced that an investigation of the Deer Range Improvement Program had revealed that funds were not used entirely as intended.

While this story is still developing, MUCC's MichiganOutofDoors.com can report that DRIP funds were being used to fund projects in northern Michigan that satisfied requirements for Federal matching grant dollars but were not always ideal for developing deer habitat -- which is what the intent of the DRIP program was.

The DRIP fund takes $1.50 from each deer license sold and places it in a fund that is used to improve deer habitat primarily in northern MIchigan. The fund is used for acquiring new pieces of land and, more recently, to improve deer habitat in the northern reaches of the state. The fund, which is constituionally protected from diversion, is a critical piece of the DNR budget in terms of habitat development and staffing for deer management.

NRC Commissioner John Madigan, along with NRC Chair Keith Charters, in cooperation with Director Humphries, conducted an extensive investigation into the way DRIP funds were being used and determined that the funds were not being used to the best of their ability and have vowed to revamp the system to ensure the  money is being used for its intended purpose.

Stay tuned to MichiganOutofDoors.com for more details and information on this developing issue. You can view the recording of the live stream that MichiganOutofDoors.com provided below. The comments on the DRIP funds begin at the 4:20 mark of the video.

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