February 20, 2025
Contact: Libby London, 612-227-8407
(Ely, MN) – Minnesota Senator Hauschild introduced a troubling bill that goes against the balanced decision made in July of 2024 when the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Minnesota Office of School Trust Lands (OSTL), and the U.S. Forest Service announced a plan to transfer 80,000 acres of school trust lands inside of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) to federal management in return for payment into the OSTL Permanent School Fund.
In the new proposal, the DNR would include an independent appraisal to ensure that the Permanent School Fund will receive fair market value for the lands. The federal government would then purchase those lands from the DNR using federally appropriated Land and Water Conservation Funds and consolidate federal ownership of lands in the BWCAW which solves a longstanding lands management issue.
“We are very disappointed to see Senator Hauschild’s introduction of legislation that would withhold millions of dollars from the school children of Minnesota by prohibiting the sale of state-owned lands in the Boundary Waters. This bill goes against the sound decision made last summer by the Department of Natural Resources, the Office of School Trust Lands, and Forest Service, as well as the financial analysis that makes clear that a purchase, not a land exchange, of the school trust lands is in the greater financial interest of public education,” said Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters, “it’s difficult to understand why anyone who purports to support education in our state would be against a proposal that would infuse millions of dollars into supporting K-12 Minnesota school children and solve a longstanding lands management issue. The question then becomes, who benefits from this bill? Because it certainly isn’t the schoolchildren of Minnesota, as the Permanent School Fund intends.”
School Trust Lands within the Boundary Waters can't be used for economic profit, so selling them to be managed as part of the federal Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is a win-win: infusing millions of dollars into the Permanent School Fund supporting K-12 Minnesota schools and consolidating federal ownership on lands in the BWCAW.
Leaders within Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, the 501(c)(3) that oversees Save the Boundary Waters, have been working on the federal purchase of school trust lands in the Boundary Waters for over 30 years.
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