School Trust Lands in the Boundary Waters
When Minnesota became a state in 1858 the federal government granted two sections of every township to the state to be held in trust for the benefit of public schools (hence, "school trust land"). The state could use, lease, or sell the land to raise money for education.
At present, the state still owns approximately 2.5 million acres of School Trust Lands, including 93,000 acres inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Because the land is inside the wilderness area, the state cannot log the forests there, and it doesn't generate school funds.
A number of solutions have been proposed:
- sell the state land to the federal government, making it part of the national forest. This would cost about $90 million. Sierra Club supports this option because it protects the national forest and is financially responsible. A purchase would likely yield an additional $192 million in school dividends over twenty years--more than ten times the return from intensive logging.
- Exchange the state land for up to three times the area of federal land outside the BWCAW. This would cut federal payments to St. Louis and Lake counties by $250,000 a year, and could eliminate a significant portion of the Superior National Forest. It would yield only $9 million for the school trust fund over 20 years.
- generate alternate funds for public schools with Boundary Waters user fees.