Ted Nugent stood center stage, playing to his audience.
But this stage was not the usual haunt for the 70s rock star.
This was a hearing before a joint Michigan state House committee on “Weaponization of State Government.”
Nugent was among several witnesses who testified about run-ins with state Department of Natural Resources conservation officers that they alleged violated the law to enforce what they described as the agency’s “anti-conservation” policies.
"That kind of jack-booted thuggery is why we have half the deer hunters that we used to have,” testified Nugent. “I know our quality of life comes from the heroes of law enforcement who secure our neighborhoods and streets, but then there are jack-booted thugs.”
DNR spokesman Ed Golder released a statement defending the agency’s officers as highly professional and rigorously trained law enforcement officials.
Golder also defended the agency’s enforcement actions.
“The DNR is committed to science-based natural resource management and the fair application of the law,” Golder said in a written statement after the hearing.
Nugent was the target of a DNR suit concerning his 340-acre hunting ranch in Jackson County, which offers guided hunts for white-tailed deer, buffalo, and other exotic game.
A judge dismissed the DNR's case against Nugent’s game ranch after determining the department failed to prove that an animal harvested there was a Russian boar or a Russian boar hybrid.
Other witnesses at the hearing shared similar dealings with the DNR.
The chair of the "weaponization" committee said the panel will invite DNR officials to testify after the committee receives requested documents from the agency.
The “weaponization” committee was set up earlier this year after Republicans retook control of the state House of Representatives. So far, the committee has heard testimony from Michiganders with a wide range of complaints, including state COVID lockdown policies and antisemitism on state college campuses.
