The Department of Natural Resources released answered frequently asked questions about hunting and fishing on commercial forest land.

The article is in its entirety below.

Questions have recently arisen about public access to private lands enrolled under Michigan’s Commercial Forest Act.  The same rules that apply to public land do not apply to private lands enrolled in the program. Although commercial forest landowners must allow access for the purposes of hunting and fishing, landowners retain all other private property rights.

Michigan’s commercial forest program provides a tax incentive to landowners who manage their property for long-term timber production.  Landowners enrolled in the program pay reduced property taxes and the state of Michigan pays an additional amount to counties where the land is enrolled to help make-up for the tax reduction.

Nearly 1,700 private landowners participate in the program with roughly 2.2 million acres – the vast majority of it in the northern two-thirds of the state – enrolled. Landowners include individuals, civic and hunting clubs and businesses.

The Commercial Forest Act requires that landowners manage the property for commercial timber production and must have a written management plan. Christmas tree farms are not eligible.  The law prohibits other activities on the land such as agriculture, grazing and industrial, residential, resort or commercial activities.

The law requires that landowners must allow the general public the privilege of hunting and fishing on commercial forest land, unless that land is closed to hunting, fishing or both, by the Department of Natural Resources or an act of the Legislature.  Landowner permission to hunt or fish is not required.

The rules also require that there must be reasonable access to the property for it to be included in the program. Inaccessible tracts are not eligible.

According to administrative rules, the land may not be posted to restrict or infer that hunting or fishing is not allowed. Landowners, however, may post the land to restrict other activities – bird-watching, camping, and off-road riding, for instance. The land may be fenced and gated as long as foot access is available to hunters and fishermen. In the interest of safety, however, the land may be posted to restrict access during periods of active timber harvest, for which cutting permits have been issued.

The land may also be posted during mineral-exploration operations, but the posting may only be on those portions of land needed for safe and efficient operations. During mineral-extraction operations, the portion of forest land affected by the operation must be withdrawn from the program, though the extraction of sand and gravel is permissible after application and approval of the DNR.

Landowners are not required to allow motor vehicle access to the property. Although many lands have logging roads that have traditionally been used by the public to access the property, the use of such roads by the public is entirely up to the individual landowners.

In 1985, as a result of a lawsuit filed by a fishing club, the court ruled that long-time public use of a road on commercial forest land does not constitute an easement. An informal opinion of the attorney general in 1999 affirmed this finding, saying that “activities that are ‘directly related’ to the protected activities can be distinguished from the activities themselves.”

Hunters and fishermen who wish to access commercial forest land by vehicles must obtain permission from the landowner to do so. Landowners who grant permission to some individuals are not required to grant the same permission to everyone.

In addition, hunters may not build structures or construct blinds without landowner permission. The use of nails, bolts or tree steps that could lessen the value of timber is not allowed.  The cutting of shooting lanes or the destruction of brush, trees or other vegetation is prohibited.

Trapping is defined as hunting under the law and is allowed; however, littering laws prohibit the leaving of unattended objects on the property. Traps could be considered littering. For practical purposes, a trapper would need landowner permission to establish a trap line on commercial forest land.  Snares are not allowed on commercial forest land.

Similarly, bait piles established by hunters, if left unattended, could be considered littering.

In 2006, the attorney general issued a letter that prohibits commercial hunting. A commercial bear hunting operation on commercial forest land, for instance, would be prohibited.

In summation, landowners must permit foot access to commercial forest land to individuals to hunt and fish without permission. The access to that land, by motor vehicle or for activities other than hunting and fishing, is entirely at the discretion of the landowner.

Maps and legal descriptions of commercial forest lands enrolled in the program can be found at on the Web at www.michigan.gov/privateforestland.