OSTL updated its Strategic Plan in June 2021. The Strategic Plan was originally completed in 2018. Required by law, it created a roadmap to help OSTL fulfill it’s mission to “develop and advocate for sustainable asset management strategies that maximize long-term revenue for Minnesota's public schools.”
The Office of School Trust Lands has embarked on the development of an asset management plan to serve as a 25-year framework to guide the management of Minnesota’s 2.5 million acres of school trust lands and additional 1 million acres of severed mineral rights. Phase One of the plan is now complete.
The State of Minnesota and the United States Forest Service are working together to transfer to federal ownership approximately 80,000 acres of school trust lands located within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The Department of Natural Resources issues leases to private companies and local governments to mine construction aggregate (sand, gravel, crushed stone, and landscape rock) on school trust and other state lands. Rental payments and material sales royalties from school trust leases generate revenue that is deposited into the Permanent School Fund.
Market mechanisms and incentive programs that reward trust land managers for protection and management of sensitive environmental resources may provide benefits that meet the fiduciary responsibility of the trust, while also protecting the ecological values of the lands.
