Next year the Colorado State Land Board will share a 150th birthday with the state of Colorado. New legislation signed by Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday could give the land board its first new direction in 30 years.
From 1876 to 1996, the land board used its 2.8 million acres of surface land and 4 million acres of minerals — valued at $4.1 billion — to generate as much revenue as possible for Colorado schools. In 1996, voters passed Amendment 16, which adjusted the land board’s maximum-dollar mandate to allow the land board to include land conservation, stewardship, resource protection and “community stability” alongside things like leasing land to oil and gas drillers, mining companies or commercial real estate developers.
House Bill 1332 could give the land board even more leeway when balancing revenue with resources and values. The bill creates a 21-person committee — the State Trust Lands Conservation and Recreation Work Group — that will focus on how to better infuse conservation, community needs and recreation into the land board mission. The group will make recommendations to the land board by September 2026 and new policies could be adopted by early 2027.
The goal is to better balance how the land board generates revenue with protecting and conserving lands for recreation, open space and wildlife.
It is not about changing the board’s overarching mission to generate funds for schools. That would require a statewide vote since the land board is part of the state constitution. The Colorado State Land Board formed in 1876 — the year Colorado became a state — to manage 4 million acres of federal lands granted by the U.S. Congress at statehood to support public schools. That mandate to make money differentiates state trust lands from other public lands. The land board has earned more than $2 billion for Colorado schools in the last 15 years.
The working group’s recommendations could offer “a way to grow investment and have other benefits to the people of Colorado, whether that’s something like promoting outdoor recreation or using state trust lands for housing for teachers,” said Colorado Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, a sponsor of House Bill 1332.
“The working group can take a holistic view of the potential benefits of state trust land whether its extractive industries or agriculture or some of the new demands of the state like outdoor recreation and affordable housing,” he said. “This is a really good opportunity to take a refreshed look at how to maximize state trust lands in a variety of ways.”
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