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Lease Stipulations & Provisions

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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.

​All of our lessees are required to follow our site-specific stewardship stipulations. Additionally, our lessees must comply with all local, state, and federal regulations, and they are required to obtain necessary local, state, and federal permits. Violating stewardship stipulations may result in lease termination. 

The Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) is the regulatory agency for oil and gas development in the State of Colorado. The State Land Board is a separate agency from the ECMC. Our agency and our lessees are subject to the same local, state, and federal rules and requirements as any private land owner.

Watch our short video about stewardship stipulations for oil and gas leases:

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General stipulations

There are roughly 7,000 leases on trust land in Colorado. Lease types range from rights-of-ways to recreation to mineral extraction to agriculture. Each contract includes stewardship requirements, and lessees may be subject to lease termination if the terms aren’t met satisfactorily. Our field staff inspects each leased property to ensure the land is being well stewarded. Lease renewals are dependent, in part, on good stewardship. We partner with lessees to help ensure the land is stewarded well, particularly regarding noxious weed mitigation. Agriculture operators can:

Stipulations for mineral leases

Stipulations are an important part of the agency’s oil, gas, and solid minerals leasing process.


Tracts nominated for mineral extraction are reviewed by staff and then distributed for comment to local and state government experts, such as local government designees and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) energy liaisons. CPW energy liaisons provide input regarding wildlife, threatened, and endangered species, species of special concern, and critical wildlife habitat. Our agency reviews CPW’s recommendations along with information from the Colorado Natural Heritage Program BIOTICS database to identify whether any rare plants or other species could be impacted by the proposed use. Based on the input collected, the nominated tracts are either not leased or the lease contract is written to include stipulations that accommodate the experts’ concerns. A lease can be terminated if the lessee doesn’t comply with the stipulations.