The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will open a new Customer Service Center at 2122 South M-37 in Traverse City on July 11. The new office replaces the existing DNR office on Emerson Road, which will close as of Friday. 

The new Traverse City office will be one of 11 full-service DNR customer service centers around the state.

The center will be open Monday through Friday, 8am-5pm. Services the Traverse City Customer Service Center will provide include:
 - selling Recreation Passports; hunting, fishing and ORV licenses, and snowmobile and ORV trail permits
 - issuing a variety of permits, including permits for hunters, anglers and ORV riders with disabilities, crop damage permits for farmers, and salvage permits for roadkill animals
 - issuing temporary replacement hunter safety certificates
 - directing customers to the nearest licensed wildlife rehabilitator for injured animals.

The new office is located three quarters of a mile south of Chums Corner.

Dave Graham, area manager with the DNR Finance and Operations Division, says the move will mean significant cost savings. The existing Traverse City office on Emerson Road is the DNR’s most expensive lease at a cost of $2.59 million since 1997.

The price of the new facility, which features more than double the amount of office and storage space, was $1.3 million. The location will support the existing Traverse City staff, 18 staff members from various DNR divisions, as well as accommodate additional staff and possible leasing from other state agencies.

The office’s phone number will remain the same: 231-922-5280.