A Sanilac County dairy farming operation has been ordered to pay $10,000 in fines and restore 69 acres of wetland after illegally clearing the land to plant feed crops.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced yesterday that the Ingham County Circuit Court entered an order granting summary disposition in favor of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) in a lawsuit initiated in October 2022 against Sandusky’s Weaverland Farms and the family operating it. The case’s opinion was entered last Friday, July 26, by Judge Wanda M. Stokes.
The wetland destruction came to light during an EGLE investigation into a separate violation of the Farm’s Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) permit. Members of the family owning Weaverland Farms illegally cleared 69 acres of forested wetlands to plant crops used to feed their dairy cattle.
They also used the cleared area to spread manure from their dairy. EGLE discovered the farm had doubled the size of a field used to dispose of manure, encroaching on the wetland. A subsequent site visit confirmed that the defendants had changed the landscape of the wetland and converted it into a cornfield.
Nessel filed the lawsuit against Weaverland Farms and the individual family members who cleared and farmed the wetland for violating Part 303 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (NREPA).
A trial for the civil case was scheduled for September, but canceled upon the judge’s decision Friday.
