This comprehensive report offers state trust land managers the latest strategies andtools for asset management, residential and commercial development, conservation use, and collaborative planning. Land managers will learn how to fulfill their trust responsibilitieswhile producing larger revenues for trust beneficiaries, accommodating publicinterests, and more.

Concentrated in nine western states, 42 million acres of state trust land represent an important public resource. Trust land managers, responsible for upholding the fiduciary purpose of these lands for the designated beneficiaries--primarily K-12 public schools--must actively and deliberately take advantage of opportunities to generate revenues while ensuring the long-term sustainability of the trust. This policy focus report offers an overview of the history and unique aspects of state trust lands and presents examples of new management strategies and tools that focus on asset management, residential and commercial development, conservation use, and collaborative planning.

States are obligated to generate income from state trust lands to fund public institutions, through mining, grazing, agriculture, or logging. However, this report--a product of Western Lands and Communities, a joint program of the Lincoln Institute and the Sonoran Institute--shows how conservation can be an equally robust source of revenue. From the mid-1700s to the late 1950s, state trust lands were granted to states upon their entrance into the Union for the sole purpose of supporting public institutions, primarily K-12 public schools. Eighty-five percent of the remaining 46 million acres of state trust lands are concentrated in the West. This report explores current and recommended strategies to conserve state trust lands with ecological and environmental value, while maintaining the trust obligation to earn revenue for K-12 schools and other beneficiaries. Building on the Lincoln Institute's previous report, State Trust Lands in the West: Fiduciary Duty in a Changing Landscape (2006), and a companion website, State Trust Lands (statetrustlands.org), the authors evaluate the pros and cons of the conservation mechanisms that are currently available to state trust land management agencies, including conservation sales and leases through easements or outright fee-simple purchases, contributory value and nonmonetary value, ecosystems services markets, and land tenure and exchange. They also offer recommendations for new methods to realize revenue from conservation activity. Key recommendations are to: expand the use of conservation sales and leases; improve the utility of contributory value in the master planning process; increase access to ecosystem services markets; and streamline the land tenure adjustment process, which includes reform of the appraisal process. Monetizing conservation will provide opportunities for land management agencies to pursue conservation options. All state trusts carry the mandate to fund beneficiaries in perpetuity, indicating the need for sustainable land management practices.

An examination of state lands, from a state rather than federal government perspective. This study presents information from 22 US states in its discussion of state trust lands as models of public land administration.

Forging a Sustainable Southwest is the story of how diverse groups of citizens in the Southwest have worked collaboratively to develop visions for land use that harmonize ecological, economic, cultural, and community needs.

Land trusts, or conservancies, protect land by owning it. Although many people are aware of a few large land trusts--The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land, for instance--there are now close to 1,300 local trusts, with more coming into being each month. American land trusts are diverse, shaped by their missions and adapted to their local environments. Nonetheless, all land trusts are private, non-profit organizations for which the acquisition and protection of land by direct action is the primary or sole mission. Nonconfrontational and apolitical, land trusts work with willing land owners in voluntary transactions. Although land trusts are the fastest-growing and most vital part of the land conservation movement today, this model of saving land by private action has become dominant only in the past two decades. Brewer tells why the advocacy model--in which private groups try to protect land by promoting government purchase or regulation-- in the 1980s was eclipsed by the burgeoning land trust movement. He gives the public a much-needed primer on what land trusts are, what they do, how they are related to one another and to other elements of the conservation and environmental movements, and their importance to conservation in the coming decades. As Brewer points out, unlike other land-saving measures, land trust accomplishments are permanent. At the end of a cooperative process between a landowner and the local land trust, the land is saved in perpetuity. Brewer's book, the first comprehensive treatment of land trusts, combines a historical overview of the movement with more specific information on the different kinds of land trusts that exist and the problems they face. The volume also offers a "how-to" approach for persons and institutions interested in donating, selling, or buying land, discusses four major national land trusts (The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, American Farmland Trust, and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy); and gives a generous sampling of information about the activities and accomplishments of smaller, local trusts nationwide. Throughout, the book is enriched by historical narrative, analysis of successful land trusts, and information on the how and why of protecting land, as well as Brewer's intimate knowledge of ecological systems, biodiversity, and the interconnectedness of human and non-human life forms. Conservancy is a must-read volume for people interested in land conservation--including land trust members, volunteers and supporters--as well as anyone concerned about land use and the environment.