About Forests & People -- State Forests

Most states own and manage some forest land, state parks are the most

familiar, but many states have forest land that are manage for wildlife habitat, wood products and livestock grazing.  You may have wondered how states came to own forest land.  Well —-.

Bitterroot

As the American frontier moved west and an area within a large territory had enough residents, the people would figure out a reasonable (or unreasonable) boundary and petition for statehood in the USA.  That was about the only option because the land between settlers and towns was USA Public Domain.  When Congress said, “OK, you’re a state,” they gave the new state a whole lot of Public Domain land.  The idea was the state would use this land gift as collateral to build a good education system.  

The way Congress gave this land is unique, it goes like this.  The Northwest Ordinance of 1785 set up a system of land surveying based on one mile square areas called sections, each containing 640 acres.   A Township is six miles by six miles with 36 of these one mile square sections.  There is a standard way of numbering the sections and labeling the Townships.  This makes it possible to exactly identify a piece of land on a map and on the ground.  (Paul W. Gates, History of Public Land Law Development, pg 65) This surveying system for America was the brainchild of Thomas Jefferson, but he borrowed it from the ancient Egyptians.  The Northwest Ordinance of 1785 was amended a few times down through the years, but the land surveying system it set up is still in effect.  

When a new state was carved out of a territory one section in every Township  was to be used for schools.  (Paul W. Gates, History of Public Land Law Development, pg 68)  Later laws changed this to two sections per Township for schools.  To keep it simple, sections 16 and 36 in every Township were for schools.  It didn’t take long for states to start trading their sections 16 and 36 for federal land and private land to bunch together the state owned land rather than have sections scattered throughout the state.  By these land trades, states created the large areas of state forests and state parks that we know today.  Through the years lands have been donated to states and states have bought land for wildlife habitat, for parks and for state forests.  Trading, donations and purchasing state forest land is still continuing.

In many states, the income from state forests that were originally sections 16 and 36 still goes to schools.