MARQUETTE — Residents from around the state spoke up during a Michigan Department of Natural Resources meeting addressing a 10,000-acre mineral rights request from the Keweenaw Land Association.

KEWL is a Michigan corporation that owns nearly 430,000 acres of mineral rights in Michigan and northern Wisconsin. According to its website, KEWL “previously operated as a forest products and land management company owning substantial subsurface mineral rights” until the sale of its timberland assets in 2021.

The request for 10,631.43 acres of metallic minerals lease rights covers many Upper Peninsula counties, including Baraga, Dickinson, Iron, Marquette and Menominee. The DNR held a public input meeting on Wednesday briefly detailing the request from KEWL and the process by which a company requests a metallic mineral lease.

According to the state of Michigan website, “Any party interested in leasing state-owned metallic mineral rights can ‘nominate’ state-owned mineral rights for lease.” In other words, individuals or companies may nominate themselves to own metallic mineral rights, a claim which is then reviewed by a multiagency panel.

The process itself is something many attendees expressed complaints about during public comment.

Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition board member Kathleen Heidemen asked, “Why are the companies self-nominating … to get critical and strategic minerals in the state of Michigan? The DNR has the option of either leasing dirt minerals via the nomination direct process or a sealed bid auction, which would be competitive. We ask that the sealed bid auction be used instead of self-nominating.”

Heidemen cited that the practice is “outdated” and “short-sighted.”

Eli Haber requested the DNR amend its leasing process “to be more democratic and to better prioritize environmental concerns.”

Multiple attendees also said they felt the DNR was failing to deliver on its duties as stated in its legislative mandate. Carrie La Seur, legal director at For the Love of Water in Traverse City, pointed out that the DNR’s mandate places its highest priority as “the conservation and development of the natural resources of the state.” It further reads: “The legislature shall provide for the protection of the air, water and other natural resources of the state from pollution, impairment and destruction.”

“The DNR should keep in mind its legal responsibility to steward taxpayer resources and before issuing the lease should consider how mineral development would impact sensitive areas in this vast acreage,” said Brian Noell, board member of the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve in Big Bay. “The DNR owes it to the people of Michigan to move slowly and not allow our public resources to be leased at a pittance without considering the potential cost and damage to forest, wetland and wildlife habitat.”

Coalition to Save the Menominee River chair Mary Hansen asked, “How is the DNR protecting this land for future generations if they lease to a company that may very well turn them into mine sites in Michigan?”

Other attendees commented on the DNR’s focus on the financial aspect of the offer rather than the economic implications.

One Michigan resident, Nicole Biber, said it’s “really, honestly scary” that the DNR is viewing the lease offer through the lens of “what can potentially be profitable.”

“It’s just such short-term thinking,” she said.

Michelle Hailey, the attorney for an owner of surface rights in the proposed lease area, raised concerns she and her client had about KEWL’s potential lease and how that would affect residents.

“Will the DNR include restrictions in the lease based on the surface owners’ reasonable requests to protect surface resources,” Hailey asked. “Will the DNR inform the surface owner when an exploration plan is submitted? … I am concerned largely because any restrictions put on these parcels are voluntary … They are mere suggestions and the only way to actuate them is to sue for damage done to the surface.”

U.P. resident and environmental advocate Tom Grotewohl said the DNR and KEWL should exercise “extreme precaution” in the extraction and use of precious minerals.

“Future generations will feel robbed if no minerals remain because today’s DNR sold them off to the first bidder,” he said.

Various other attendees requested an in-person meeting be held so landowners on or adjacent to the proposed lease area — especially ones who don’t use the internet — can be fully informed on the situation. Some reported problems with the DNR’s virtual meeting software, saying that they weren’t able to unmute themselves to participate in public comment.

Heidemen, in a second session of public comment, told the panel that an in-person meeting would fix these issues for those unable to speak due to technical difficulties.

Attendee Anna Bunting said these technical issues are “equivalent to silencing these voices” present at the meeting, suggesting that someone figure out the issue for the benefit of the public.

DNR officials said answers and supplemental information would be provided to the public after the department officially reviewed all questions and comments. At that time, all information will be available online at michigan.gov/minerals.