The Payette Endowment Land Strategy indicates that there is a continued need to evaluate and discuss the future of endowment lands within and immediately outside of the City of McCall’s growth and impact areas. While timber harvesting and cottage site leases and sales have been the most visible endowment land management approaches in McCall, new opportunities to generate income for the endowment beneficiaries may be discussed as they are brought to the Idaho Department of Lands for consideration.
“The concept is a result of internal guidance and historical plans, City of McCall comprehensive planning documents, other state endowment land plans addressing similar issues, and Idaho regulations and laws.”
From Idaho Department of Lands Payette Endowment Land Strategy
What is Endowment Land?
If you’ve lived in the west, you’ve likely heard land managed by the United States Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management described as “land of many uses.” Endowment land is different.
At statehood, Congress granted Idaho endowment trust land for the sole purpose of funding specified beneficiaries, which are largely public schools. How the Land Board must manage these lands is also written in the Idaho Constitution. Article IX, Section VIII mandates that they will be managed “…in such manner as will secure the maximum long-term financial return to the institution to which [it is] granted.”