ESCANABA — The Delta County Board of Commissioners indicated Tuesday that the county is drafting a response to the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, which told the county it was “almost certainly” violating terms of a grant given for the county forest by modifying an easement across land owned by Former Delta Conservation District CEO Rory Mattson.

“We are not behind the eight ball, we are on time. And I’m looking forward to having this response finalized and getting it to the DNR,” said Board Chair Dave Moyle.

Commissioner Bob Petersen, who formerly served on the Conservation District Board while Mattson was the district’s CEO, told the commission he was actively working with Mattson on drafting the document.

“I’m working with Rory and Administrator (Ashleigh) Young, and we are putting together, we are gathering a lot of information. We were out there taking pictures of some things last week and we will have … everything ready hopefully by Friday, and we’ll meet with Miss Young to go through it and finalize the response, and then we will be able to bring it to the next meeting, OK it, and send it out,” said Petersen.

Commissioner Steve Viau asked if the current conservation district board was involved with developing the document. He said the district had the records about the county forest and the Trust Fund grant.

“So does Rory,” said Petersen in reply.

Petersen said the conservation district was “more than welcome” to write their own letter to the Trust Fund. Conservation District Board Chair Joe Kaplan told the Daily Press Wednesday that the district would, indeed, be writing its own letter to the Trust Fund.

The issue of the easement goes all the way back to the creation of the county forest in 2017. When the roughly 1,400 acres was purchased, the county received a grant from the Trust Fund, which, like all grants issued by the DNR through the fund, came with certain stipulations about public use of the land.

Sometime not long after the forest was purchased, Mattson purchased parcels adjoining the forest — both as an individual and jointly with former District Board Chair Jack Herrick and Gary Stanek. An easement was approved allowing access to the forest over a portion of the land Mattson owned.

In August of 2023, Mattson came before the commission with a request to modify the easement, which he said erroneously allowed more types of access to the forest than were part of the initial easement proposal. At his request, the commission modified the easement to restrict access to only timber harvesting and fire suppression, effectively blocking recreational access to the forest across his land.

The amendment was signed the same night it was approved, Aug. 15, 2023, and on Aug. 17, 2023, the county received word from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund stating a change to the easement “would almost certainly represent a breach of the project agreement.” Despite the Trust Fund’s warning, the change was notarized and filed with the county’s register of deeds on Aug. 21, 2023.

“I’ve always had the county at heart, so I can tell you this much: I’m not going to screw the county. I’m just not, because that’s not Rory Mattson,” Mattson told the Daily Press after concerns were raised that recording the easement made it legally binding and could leave the county responsible for paying back the grant — a sum Moyle said was somewhere around $825,000.

The Conservation District board, which is composed entirely of members now in their first term who largely ran on promises of change from Mattson’s leadership, requested assistance from the Attorney General’s office to look into a number of issues related to Mattson’s work for the district on Aug. 23, 2023. The Attorney General’s office responded to that request Wednesday, stating that the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) was concerned about expert witness testimony Mattson had given in violation of state law, which prohibits conservation district foresters from competing with private sector businesses as environmental consultants.

“It is clear from the evidence that the District’s Board of Directors was aware of and complicit in these violations,” Assistant Attorney General Danielle Allison-Yokom, of the Environment, Natural Resources, and Agricultural Division, wrote in the letter sent to the conservation district.

The letter also expressed that MDARD had concerns about the conservation district’s financial management and recordkeeping practices.

The district has been given 30 days to send a list of steps the board has taken to correct the practices discovered by the attorney general’s office investigation to avoid penalties. The letter specified that the district could lose $50,000 in annual grant funding and be responsible for paying back $400,000 in past grants. If there were any directors remaining on the board from the time of the violations, those board members could also be removed by MDARD.

Petersen announcing he and Mattson were working together to draft the letter to the response to the Natural Resources Trust Fund prompted murmurs from the audience at Tuesday’s meeting. Petersen has repeatedly been criticized by members of the public, including Kaplan, for his relationship with Mattson. Immediately prior to his election to the county board, he served as the chair of the district and he has been a frequent defender and supporter of Mattson’s continued work for and with the county.

Mattson retired from his position with the conservation district at the end of last year, after negotiating the termination of the district’s management of the county parks system and soil and erosion permits. The county has brought Mattson in to serve as an independent contractor and consultant assisting the county in its transition to soil and erosion permit management.