Policy Focus Report on State Trust Lands
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| Traditional trust land uses such as agriculture, grazing, mining, and timber among others, generate revenue for trust beneficiaries. Conserving State Trust Lands: Strategies for the Intermountain West, a new report from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, shows how conservation can also become a revenue source. State trust lands were granted to states upon their entrance into the Union for the purpose of generating income for public institutions, primarily K-12 education. This policy focus report examines mechanisms and strategies that satisfy the goals of the trust while fostering conservation of these lands, which add significant ecological and recreational value to the West. To receive a hard copy of the report by mail, please send your name and mailing address to Mia Stier. |
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Proactive Steps toward Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat Protection
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Idaho and Utah are proactively working to increase Sage-Grouse populations to preempt the need for Endangered Species Act listing by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Idaho Department of Lands has drafted a habitat protection plan for the Greater Sage-Grouse on rangelands owned by the state endowment trust. The IDL plan complements the Governor's Sage-Grouse plan for federal land management in Idaho. Read the draft IDL conservation plan and visit the IDL Sage-Grouse webpage for all related documents, maps, and timeline for the plan. While Utah has had a conservation plan for Greater Sage-Grouse in place since February 2013, the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration recently supported the Governor's executive order "to help ensure a healthy sustainable population for the Greater Sage-Grouse."
|  Male Greater Sage-Grouse. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
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WSLCA Winter 2015 Conference Wrap-up
The Western States Land Commissioners Association held their annual winter conference in Phoenix, Arizona from January 4-8, 2015. More than 130 state and affiliate delegates from 16 states enjoyed breakout sessions on a variety of topics from federal regulatory and policy changes to commercial real estate challenges and opportunities on trust lands. Read the complete conference wrap-up, and view the agenda and presentations from this and other past conferences.
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Arizona
| Flagstaff City Council will recommend the entire study area be included in the recommendation for Walnut Canyon Conservation Area despite Arizona State Land Department's opposition to including parcels of state trust land in the proposed National Conservation Area. More online.
| | Colorado | Officials and community members disagree over removing parcel from the Stewardship Trust. Read news article. Learn more about the Stewardship Trust proposed nominations and removals here.
| Colorado Senate Bill 15-039 seeks to obtain concurrent state and federal jurisdiction over lands currently managed by U.S. BLM and Forest Service. Several sportsmen's advocacy organizations oppose the bill. View the article in Boulder Weekly.
| | Montana | Ten-year fundraising goal reached to secure permanent conservation and recreation easement on 1,520 acres in the Beaver Lakes area. Read more.
| | New Mexico | State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn issued a 60-day suspension on the SunZia transmission project to review impact upon state trust lands, which account for about 30 percent of the line. Click here for the article in the Quay County Sun.
| The State Land Office moves forward with auctions for solar projects on state trust land after a month-long delay. The Otero County project is expected to be three times larger than the state's current largest solar array. Learn more.
| | Utah | School and Institutional Trust Lands argue that the BLM's failure to manage and remove wild horses from state trust lands has damaged rangeland. Read the Salt Lake Tribune article.
| | Washington | The DNR recently hosted a sustainable harvest calculation (SHC) webinar. The webinar recording and other information on SHC are available here.
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Share your state trust land photos with us. We would love to update our website images. Please send photos to Mia and include attribution details.
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About Building Trust
Building Trust is a quarterly e-newsletter published by Western Lands and Communities, a joint venture of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Sonoran Institute. The mission of Western Lands and Communities state trust lands program is to assist western state trust land managers in enhancing the value of the trust for its beneficiaries by broadening the range of land-use information, tools, and policy options available to managers and diverse stakeholders for the long-term sustainable management of state trust lands.SIGN UP TO RECEIVE BUILDING TRUST: To sign up for this newsletter, or to remove your name for our email list, please click here. NEWS FROM THE FIELD: If your office has trust land management information and tools in asset management, collaborative planning, real estate development, and/or conservation use that you would like to share, contact us. Please attach supplemental materials such as news releases, documents, and photos. |
