A new report from the Auditor General's office shows the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has not been reporting its trail inspections for off-road vehicle trails.
Additionally, the audit showed the department lapsing on funds meant for county sheriffs' departments and a lack of inspection recording across the over the trails they maintain.
Timothy Novak is a trail coordinator with the DNR. He said that they try to follow the law to the letter, but a mixture of confusing and difficult law formatting along with a lack of staff causes some issues.
"If you read the report they came up with an inconclusive finding because the law was so confusing. They really couldn't determine if we were following it correctly or not," said Novak. "So it makes our job kind of hard because we're trying to follow that law to the best of our ability, but it's just written very confusingly, and we try to do our best to manage it. But the auditor couldn't determine if we were actually following it or not because they they couldn't understand how the law was written."
The law states that certain percentages of funding must go towards specific areas. Towards the end of the 2023 fiscal year the DNR had $180,000 open up for sheriffs' department usage. As this was only two months before the end of the fiscal year, no departments requested use of the funds and therefore they lapsed into the Off Road Vehicle Trail Improvement Fund.
"They have an annual allotment that they get, and then the that those funds were above and beyond what they typically get," Novak explained. "And especially late in the season, it's hard for them to find time. Most of [the funds] is spent on personnel hours patrolling our trails and so they just didn't have the opportunity to get staff out there and utilize those funds."
According to the audit, the DNR is not properly recording their trail inspections, having requested 42 inspection reports. Not a single report was provided.
Of the 6,000 miles of trails that need to be inspected annually, the DNR has only eight regional trail specialists to perform the inspections.
"The motorized program is just a part of their job responsibilities, and they could spend every day out on ORV trails trying to inspect them and they wouldn't be able to get it all done," said Novak. "It's not that we're not out on our trails looking at them. It's just the process of when we go out on a trail and notice that something needs to be fixed. Are we coming back and recording that?"
He then went on to explain how the DNR generally communicates directly with local motorized clubs to get the trails repaired and in good condition. The DNR is currently working towards rectifying this issue by possibly hiring more people to get the inspections properly recorded.
The auditor's inspection of the trails saw all to be in good condition.
Editor's note: The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is a sponsor of WCMU. We report on them as we do with any other organization.
