Idaho Trust Land Management
Department of Lands Contact: Kathy Opp, Deputy Director, Director's Office, Boise, tele (208) 334-0200; email: kopp@idl.idaho.gov
Updates
› K-12 Beneficiary Distribution Fiscal Year 2012
› Report: Economic Activity of Idaho’s Endowment Trust Lands - Dr. Peter Crabb - posted October 4, 2011
› Cottage Site Program – Lot Solutions Process - posted November 29, 2010
› Form Updates - Sample Exchange Application and Sample Purchase Application - updated March 16, 2010 - see right under Additional Information and Forms
› Endowment Land Transaction Advisory Committee Reports, FAQs - posted March 2, 2010
› December 20, 2011 Department of Lands Approved Land Board Memorandum
The Background section of the Plan is shown below.
I. Overview
A. Background
Endowment assets of the State of Idaho consist of both land and funds. All endowment assets are held in trust by the State in nine endowment trusts. The State initially received grants of over 3.65 million acres of land in trust from the federal government in the Idaho Admissions Bill and through other federal acts. Historians of Idaho’s Constitutional debates note, "The land was to be managed according to private trust law and free from political influence and consideration…to support education [and] with the profits from these lands to relieve taxpayers from the burden."1 Over time, properties were sold or exchanged, with proceeds from the sales and certain other income deposited in the endowment funds.
The State Constitution establishes the State Land Board of Land Commissioners (Land Board) as the trustee over the assets of the nine endowments. As trust manager, the Land Board is obligated to manage the assets of each trust with undivided loyalty to the beneficiaries of the trusts. Idaho Code 58-101 created the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) to serve as the manager of the non-financial assets of each trust. Similarly, Idaho Code 57-718 created the Endowment Fund Investment Board (EFIB) which formulates policy for, and manages the investment of, the financial assets.
1Colson, Dennis C. (2011). Compilation of notes from the Idaho Constitutional Convention in Boise, Idaho held July 4, 1889. Idaho Endowment Lands and The Idaho Constitution, p. 4 and 8.
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