The Colorado State Land Board owns, stewards, and leases 2.8 million surface acres and four million acres of mineral estate in order to earn money for Colorado public schools. We've earned $1.7 billion for school kids since 2008.
Responsible stewardship matters to us because trust lands need to generate revenue not only for today's students, but also for future generations of schoolchildren.
We use a suite of tools to enhance short- and long-term stewardship outcomes on state trust lands:
Our mission
We are guided by our Constitutional mission and four bold goals laid out in our 2026 Strategic Plan.
One of these goals is about real property stewardship: to protect and enhance the long-term economic value of the trust’s physical assets: land, water, commercial real estate, and mineral estate.
Defining stewardship
We know that the term stewardship can mean a number of things to different people.
Our agency defines stewardship as "an ethic that embodies the responsible planning and management of resources." Read our strategic plan for other operating definitions.
Earning revenue
We earn money from leases and we expect all lessees to be good stewards of trust land. If stewardship lease stipulations aren't met, the lease may be terminated. Likewise, trust land designated into the Stewardship Trust is still expected to generate revenue from leases.