Transfer of Federal Lands to the States
I am wondering how many RVers are aware of the movement to transfer federal lands to the states? Many western states are pushing this initiative. In Wyoming (my home state) nearly 25 million acres w...
Forum Discussion
The states were not supposed to sell their trust land. States were given the option of selling OR leasing. The advantage of leasing is that it would provide long term revenue. Here is an excerpt from an article discussing the history of state land grants:
“The rules and restrictions applicable to the grants of trust lands also changed significantly over time. In the initial grants of lands to states, Congress had presumed that school lands would be leased to generate revenues rather than being sold. However, the experience of the early states with leasing proved to be a failure. In 1827, Ohio requested authority to sell its granted lands; Congress subsequently passed legislation retroactively granting this authority to all states, and included sale authority in all new grants. Following this initial foray into restricting the management of trust lands, Congress’ subsequent land grants contained little or no guidance, leaving it to the states to decide how best to manage their lands.”
https://www.lincolninst.edu/subcenters/managing-state-trust-lands/publications/trustlands-history.pdf
The important point here is this. The states were given the option of leasing out these lands or selling them. Many chose to sell rather than lease. You can bet the same would happen today if they were given control of federal lands.
“The rules and restrictions applicable to the grants of trust lands also changed significantly over time. In the initial grants of lands to states, Congress had presumed that school lands would be leased to generate revenues rather than being sold. However, the experience of the early states with leasing proved to be a failure. In 1827, Ohio requested authority to sell its granted lands; Congress subsequently passed legislation retroactively granting this authority to all states, and included sale authority in all new grants. Following this initial foray into restricting the management of trust lands, Congress’ subsequent land grants contained little or no guidance, leaving it to the states to decide how best to manage their lands.”
https://www.lincolninst.edu/subcenters/managing-state-trust-lands/publications/trustlands-history.pdf
The important point here is this. The states were given the option of leasing out these lands or selling them. Many chose to sell rather than lease. You can bet the same would happen today if they were given control of federal lands.
