Camp Grayling to test combat drones. Towns, hunters fear impact on area

Just in time for opening day of the firearm deer season, the US Department of Defense has temporarily closed a portion of Camp Grayling used every year by dozens of hunters
The closure will allow soldiers to evaluate drone technology for the battlefield
Local government leaders and business leaders in the area worry the closure could hurt the local economy

This time of year, Ed Palmer makes preparations for his family’s annual deer camp for the start of firearm season on Nov. 15.

He splits wood for bonfires and gets his camper ready to spend several nights in Palmer’s Corner, an area of state-managed land that is leased by the Michigan Army National Guard. His family has set up camp on that portion of land in Crawford County since 1930.

But for the first time in 96 years, Palmer and his family will not ring in the opening day of firearm season in Palmer’s Corner this year.

Instead, the area will be closed from Nov. 7 to 22 after the Guard announced it would make a portion of the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center known as the Range 30 Complex and some adjoining property available to the US Department of Defense. The US military is testing combat drones that will soon be put directly into the hands of soldiers on the battlefield.

In August, in a move that earned bipartisan support, the US Army announced the National All-Domain Warfighting Center, comprised of Camp Grayling (148,000 acres) and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center (17,000 square miles), was selected as one of four premier military testing ranges in the country to help accelerate the research and development of emerging defense and drone technologies.

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The area also includes 60 miles of airspace where drones can be flown farther than a pilot can see it, something federal rules usually forbid.

Separately, Michigan has spent tens of millions of dollars to advance drone manufacturing, testing and rollout in the state.

The move to close a portion of Camp Grayling has dug up longstanding tensions between residents and the Guard that reaches well beyond one family’s deer camp. Normally, dozens of hunters use the now-closed area of state land in a given year, Palmer said.

Local officials and business leaders say the temporary closure will have a negative impact on the local economy and make hunters second-guess visiting the area in the future. Although US military leaders say they need to accelerate drone development to keep pace with the ongoing transformation of warfare, many in the community question whether weapons testing crosses a line.

According to a release from the Guard, approximately 21,633 acres, or 33.8 square miles, of Camp Grayling’s footprint will be impacted by the temporary closure, representing less than 0.3% of Michigan’s available state and federal public hunting land.

A map showing a section of state land temporarily closed to the public — A map of the Camp Grayling Range 30 Complex and adjoining land, illustrating which sections will be closed to the public from Nov. 7 to 22 for a US Department of Defense Drone Dominance program. The timing of the closure coincides with the beginning of Michigan’s firearm deer season. (Courtesy of the Michigan Army National Guard)

Camp Grayling, the nation’s largest National Guard training facility — stretching across Crawford, Kalkaska and Otsego counties — includes 57,000 acres of state land managed under long-term leases with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for military training.

A spokesperson for the DNR told WCMU Public Media the Guard has “full management authority” under their lease to conduct exercises in this area.

‘A new era’

Seventeen defense companies are coming to Camp Grayling between Nov. 7 and Nov. 22 to put drones into the hands of US soldiers so they can evaluate the drones’ capabilities and tactical prowess, according to Col. Lucas Lanczy, garrison commander at Camp Grayling.

The exercise is part of a larger $1 billion effort called Drone Dominance established by the Department of Defense in late 2025 following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Its goal is to purchase more than 200,000 small, low-cost drones by 2027 “that can produce lethal effects in the toughest battlefield environments,” the initiative’s website reads.

A soldier takes a photo of a flying drone — Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Dowing, innovation noncommissioned officer, Detachment 6, Support Group, 75th U.S. Army Reserve Innovation Command, observes a vertical takeoff and landing, or VTOL, unmanned aerial system as it conducts a vertical landing during Northern Strike 26-2 as part of his evaluation and assessment mission at Observation Point 5, Camp Grayling, on Aug. 4, 2026. (Courtesy of Master Sgt. Matthew Chlosta/US Army National Guard)

“We find ourselves in a new era. An era of cheap, disposable battlefield drones. We cannot be left behind,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a video released on social media. “We must invest in inexpensive, unmanned platforms that have proved so effective.”

With ongoing conflicts in Europe, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific, Lanczy said the Department of Defense’s schedule to try and get soldiers up to speed on how to proficiently use drones has become a moving target itself.

“I understand that for family plans and hunting plans, this temporary closure is not what they were looking forward to,” Lanczy said. “And I acknowledge that.”

Members of the Guard are scheduled for deployment into combat zones in the coming months, Lanczy said, and the drones being tested at the Range 30 Complex will soon be on the frontlines with them.

“This is us having that moral obligation to support those warfighters,” Lanczy said. “Having been deployed when there were capability gaps, not having the right equipment and having that come years later is not the way we want to do business.”

‘Our closest, best hunting’

Grayling Township Supervisor Lacey Stephan said he became sick to his stomach when he read the Guard’s announcement.

Stephan, a sixth-generation Grayling resident, said hunting lodges, sporting goods stores, restaurants and gas stations that depend on the firearm season will be negatively impacted.

“Northern Michigan, and especially Crawford County, is an outdoorsman’s paradise — hunting, fishing, trail riding, all of the above,” Stephan said. “We rely on that tourism as our number-one economic driver.”

Gates Au Sable Lodge, a seasonal business that caters to traveling hunters with 17 hotel rooms, a restaurant and sports goods shop, sits just a handful of football fields away from one of the entrances to the area that will be closed.

Owner Josh Greenberg said he’s frustrated with the lack of coordination from the Guard before their announcement was publicized because customers plan trips to his lodge far in advance. He’s expecting guests from Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky this coming firearm season and worries they’ll become disappointed when they find out about the closure.

“This is our closest, best hunting to the lodge,” Greenberg said.

“The saying when it comes to the tourist industry is you can get it right every year,” Greenberg added, “but if they can’t get to where they want to go hunt or fish once, they’ll start thinking of other places to go so this doesn’t happen again.”

‘There’s no testing going on’

The Grayling community has long supported the Guard’s mission of training soldiers, but Stephan, the township supervisor, said testing drones pushes boundaries.

“The National Guard base is a training base,” Stephan told WCMU. “It’s not a testing or a proving ground.”

A drone flies in the sky — Soldiers assigned to the 837th Brigade Engineer Battalion, Michigan National Guard, conduct training with unmanned aircraft systems at Camp Grayling on May 20, 2026. The unit utilizes tactical drones to conduct aerial reconnaissance, route clearance support and battlefield surveillance. (Courtesy of Daniel Garas/US Army National Guard)

But Lanczy contends that the upcoming exercise is not for testing drones. Rather, Lanczy said, the soldiers will be “evaluating” which drones they want to take into combat.

“There’s no testing going on,” Lanczy said.

“If I’m testing a drone, I’m curious how fast, how far it’s going to fly, how it’s going to perform under specific conditions … testing comes out with reports,” he said. “This is how we’re going to improve our product to get after particular problem sets. That’s testing. Evaluating is saying, hey, ‘Is this what the warfighter needs?’ So, Drone Dominance puts these in the hands of the warfighter… What those companies do for testing, that’s not my business.”

Stephan penned a letter that was approved by his township board on Oct. 21 voicing opposition to the temporary closure and calling on the Guard to reconsider its decision.

Stephan wrote that future solutions can be found with more collaboration in the community to minimize negative economic impacts. The supervisor said the letter will be sent to state lawmakers as well as members of Michigan’s congressional delegation.

Jim Knight, a Bear Lake Township trustee in Kalkaska County, said he’s drafting a similar letter to present to his board in the coming days. Knight said he’s fielded several calls from constituents and hunters “outraged” over the Guard’s decision.

But for Knight, the temporary closure speaks to a larger issue between the Guard and local communities that has been in the making for years.

Bear Lake Township was among the dozens of local governments across Michigan that passed resolutions in 2022 and 2023 opposing Camp Grayling’s request of a 20-year lease with the DNR to double its training footprint. The DNR ultimately denied the request that would have expanded Camp Grayling by 162,000 acres for exercises that would have included drone operations, cyber and electronic warfare and the testing of communication devices.

The DNR and Guard instead signed a memorandum of understanding in April 2023 that gives the Guard the ability to apply for special-use permits for those kinds of activities on 52,000 acres of state land. The Range 30 Complex and adjoining property is not included in that area.

In Knight’s view, the Guard is going against overwhelming public opposition to those kinds of operations being conducted.

“It is not there for testing purposes,” Knight said. “And so that was the basis of our argument.”

Palmer, the hunter whose family has organized an annual deer camp for 96 years in Crawford County, said he feels conflicted about the closure. He worked for the Guard repairing tanks and other military equipment for years and greatly values Camp Grayling’s mission of training soldiers. But testing drones doesn’t sit well with him.

“The thing that irritates me the most is they’re putting it out as military training and it’s not,” Palmer said.

He added that he’s concerned hunters won’t be aware of the closure as they make their way north for the opening day of firearm season.

“They’re going to take time off, they’re going to pack, they’re going to load, they’re going to drive up here from downstate,” he said, “and they’re going to be locked out.”

This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.

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