A new state law forces Spring Lake to loosen its duck-feeding ban, and residents get a say Oct. 19

SPRING LAKE, Mich. — The Village of Spring Lake will take public comment Oct. 19 on rewriting its ban on feeding ducks, geese and gulls, a change village officials say a new state law leaves them no room to avoid.

Public Act 86 of 2026, signed July 21 and in effect since July 27, allows anyone to feed birds and wildlife if two conditions are met: the feed is within 300 feet of a residence, and no more than 2 gallons is out at once, counting leftovers from earlier feedings. Spring Lake’s ordinance, Chapter 110 of the village code, flatly forbids feeding migratory or domestic waterfowl, or gulls, on any land in the village, public or private.

“There are no alternatives,” Village Manager Brady Selner wrote to the council in a Sept. 10 memo. “The ordinance amendment is necessary to ensure our local ordinance is not in conflict with the newly enacted state law.”

The rewrite, labeled Ordinance No. 370 and drafted by the village attorney, keeps the general ban and adds the state’s two conditions as an exception. Like the state law, it says baiting for hunting, and feed scattered by ordinary farming or logging, do not count as wildlife feeding.

Other parts of the chapter stay. Feeding pigeons would still be banned, as would letting conditions develop that draw crowds of pigeons, waterfowl or gulls, outside the new exception. A violation would remain a municipal civil infraction, with higher fines for a second offense within 12 months.

The ordinance’s stated purpose also carries over unchanged: large numbers of certain birds, it says, foul swimming beaches, parks, riverways, sidewalks and paths used by the public.

The state law began as House Bill 4350, introduced by 46 House members, and amends the part of Michigan’s natural resources code that governs the state’s deer and elk feeding orders. The amended section says that, notwithstanding those orders, an individual may feed birds and wildlife under the two conditions.

Council members put the hearing on their Sept. 21 consent agenda, which passed without dissent, according to draft minutes. The hearing is set for the council’s regular meeting Oct. 19; the packet does not say when the council would vote on the ordinance itself.

Sources:
Village of Spring Lake, Council work session agenda packet, Sept. 14, 2026 (manager’s memo, Public Act 86 of 2026 and draft Ordinance No. 370), https://www.springlaketwp.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_09142026-696
Village of Spring Lake, Council work session minutes, Sept. 14, 2026, https://www.springlaketwp.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_09142026-696
Village of Spring Lake, Draft council meeting minutes, Sept. 21, 2026, https://www.springlaketwp.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_09212026-701
Photo: Chris Gorringe, “Mallard ducks on the pond - geograph.org.uk - 7988692,” May 2, 2004, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/), cropped and color-corrected; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mallard_ducks_on_the_pond_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7988692.jpg

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