Michigan Gov.-elect Snyder to Separate Natural Resource, Environmental Agencies

LANSING (AP) — Gov.-elect Rick Snyder plans to re-split the departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources, returning them to separate agencies with their own directors.

Snyder will formally announce the change during this afternoon’s news conference. He also plans to introduce the new directors.

Former agriculture director Don Wyant will become DEQ director, while DNR Science and Policy Office Chief Rodney Stokes will become DNR director. The current director of both departments, Rebecca Humphries, is leaving to work for Ducks Unlimited.

The new agriculture director will be Keith Creagh, a former deputy director who just retired.

Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm put state regulation of natural resources and the environment into one department under a 2009 executive order. Republican Gov. John Engler separated the duties into two agencies in 1995.