DNR proposes selling 80,000 acres of school trust lands in Boundary Water Canoe Area
Boundary Waters Canoe Area. (Photo by Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune via Getty Images) (Getty Images)
ELY, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has proposed selling 80,000 acres of school trust land in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW).
School trust lands are area set aside to generate income for schools. The DNR, the Minnesota Office of School Trust Lands and the U.S. Forest Service – Superior National Forest are teaming up to transfer about 80,000 acres of these lands in the BWCAW to federal ownership.
The DNR says this decision will benefit Minnesota public schools.
According to officials, in their proposal, the DNR would remove the school trust designation from the 80,000 acres and the federal government would buy the land with federal Land Water Conservation Funds.
Those funds would then go into the Permanent School Fund to continue to provide funding for schools in Minnesota. The Permanent School Fund supports 850,000 students in Minnesota public schools by sending revenue from these lands to all schools across the state, the DNR said.
"The state's school trust lands are designated to maximize long-term economic return for the Permanent School Fund and provide a continual source of funding for every K-12 public school district in the state," said Sarah Strommen, commissioner of the Minnesota DNR. "This important land transaction ensures that the DNR can fulfill its fiduciary responsibility to the school trust. We are pleased to work with the U.S. Forest Service and The Conservation Fund to remove school trust lands from within the BWCAW and acquire forest lands outside the wilderness for the public."
A proposal from 2012 to exchange school trust lands inside the BWCAW for lands outside that area has been canceled, making way for this new proposal. The U.S. Forest Service has also canceled its Environmental Impact Statement for the original exchange. Both of these cancelations come after years of no outcome from the original proposal, the DNR said.
"The resolution of this longstanding land management issue is a major win for Minnesota’s public school students," said Aaron Vande Linde, Minnesota Office of School Trust Lands director. "The project’s culmination will result in millions of dollars deposited into the Permanent School Fund. This investment will support the state’s public education system in perpetuity, fulfilling our fiduciary duty to ensure that both current and future beneficiaries receive maximum economic returns from school trust assets."
The DNR will work to appraise the 80,000 acres of land, with the purchase set to be completed by the end of 2026.
"This is a good day for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Minnesota students. It solves a key issue that has been unresolved for thirty years - this proposal would infuse millions of dollars into the permanent fund supporting K-12 Minnesota schools and consolidates federal ownership on lands in the BWCAW," said Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters, "Thank you to the Department of Natural Resources, the Office of School Trust Lands, and Forest Service for resolution on this issue."
According to Save the Boundary Waters, the proposal has the support of three Reservation Tribal Councils of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.