The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is changing its camping reservation policies to open up more spots for campers.
Popular Michigan campgrounds are booked up months in advance, leaving some campers to have to search for other vacation spots.
Jason Fleming works with the Michigan DNR. He said often campers reserve campsites months in advance and then cancel last minute - leaving popular sites open.
“In some cases they would be holding them over five months and then make a modification a few weeks before they go. And what that does is loses an opportunity that want to camp but can’t reserve six months out an opportunity to go camping.”
And Fleming said the DNR received numerous complaints about campground booking.
“We hear often that ‘I can’t get into my favorite park.’ It is always a struggle and we do hear from quite a few people who can’t make the six month window they have to wait until things get closer to go camping.”
Fleming said the DNR is introducing a fee that penalizes canceled campsites based on how long people have had them reserved for.
“If you had a reservation up to two months the number of percentage of charge on these nights is ten percent. If it’s two to three months it’s fifteen percent, three to four months it’s twenty percent, and so on. You get to five months or greater it’s forty percent.”
Fleming said all told canceled campsites will cost ten dollars plus the percentage of the cost to reserve a site based on how long that site has been held.
He said he hopes the new charges will keep campsites open and make sure they don’t go unused.