New Policy Focus Report: State Trust Lands in the West (Land Lines Article)

Public Values in a Changing Landscape

Author(s): Culp, Peter and Cynthia Tuell
Publication Date: January 2006

Inventory ID LLA060108; English

Article

New Policy Focus Report
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State Trust Lands in the West: Public Values in a Changing Landscape

State trust lands, an often neglected and misunderstood category of public land ownership in the United States, date to the earliest decades after the Revolutionary War, when Congress granted lands to the newly formed states to support essential public institutions. While most state trust lands have long since passed into private ownership, the remaining lands are a significant resource, comprising approximately 48 million acres of land concentrated in 11 western states.

Most state trust lands are held in a perpetual, intergenerational trust to support a variety of beneficiaries, including public schools (the principal beneficiary of most grants), universities, penitentiaries, and hospitals. To fulfill this mandate, these lands are actively managed for a diverse range of uses, including timber, grazing, mining, agriculture, commercial and residential development, conservation, and recreational uses such as hunting and fishing.

These land holdings are normally accompanied by large permanent funds – some of which now total billions of dollars – that hold the proceeds from the disposal of these lands or the extraction of nonrenewable natural resources. The revenues derived from these lands and their accompanying permanent funds are used for many purposes, including guaranteeing school bonds and loans, constructing new schools, and paying teachers’ salaries.

State trust land management traditionally has focused on the leasing and sale of natural products, and many western states continue to obtain significant financial benefits from these activities. However, a growing number of western communities are changing rapidly as a result of urbanization and an ongoing shift in the U.S. toward a more diversified, knowledge-based economy. This transformation has diminished the role of natural resource extraction in many regional economies, while elevating the importance of cultural, environmental, recreational, and location-based amenities.

In many parts of the West trust managers are diversifying their trust portfolios and exploring opportunities for lucrative residential and commercial development on trust lands. Many communities now view state trust lands as public assets that have value for open space, watershed protection, fish and wildlife, and recreation – a perspective that has brought new scrutiny to the use of trust lands for development or natural resource extraction.

If trust management is to evolve to meet these demands and to have continued legitimacy with a changing public, trust managers must balance a broader set of public values in their management practices while meeting the growing needs of the public institutions for which they were dedicated. The legal doctrines that govern state trust lands provide ample room to accommodate these values within the limits of trust managers’ fiduciary responsibilities. By embracing total asset management strategies, exploring development opportunities, utilizing collaborative planning processes with community stakeholders, and exploring opportunities for conservation, trust managers can ensure and potentially increase economic benefits to the trust beneficiaries while meeting public demands associated with the preservation of healthy landscapes, open space, and better planning for growth.

This policy focus report is one of the products of the Joint Venture on State Trust Lands established in 2003 by the Lincoln Institute and the Sonoran Institute, a nonprofit organization that promotes community decisions that respect the land and people of the West. Designed to broaden the range of information and policy options available to assist diverse communities in improving state trust land management, the Joint Venture seeks to ensure that trust land stewardship, collaborative land use planning, and efficient and effective asset management on behalf of state trust land beneficiaries are integral elements of how these lands are managed.

About the Authors
Peter W. Culp is the former attorney for programs with the Sonoran Institute, and now consults for the Institute on a variety of issues related to land and water policy. Cynthia C. Tuell is an intern with the Sonoran Institute’s State Trust Lands Program.

State Trust Lands in the West: Public Values in a Changing Landscape

By Peter W. Culp and Cynthia C. Tuell

Published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
2005. 56 pages. $15.00
Policy Focus Report Code PF014
ISBN 1-55844-161-1

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