Newsroom · May 13, 2026 · weekly
Week of May 11 – May 13, 2026
BLM rescinds the 2024 Public Lands Rule. Minnesota's Permanent School Fund payout amendment heads for the November ballot. New Mexico signs a $98.9 million wind lease on state trust lands.
Three substantial items moved this period. The federal Bureau of Land Management rescinded its 2024 Public Lands Rule. Minnesota’s Legislature advanced a proposed constitutional amendment, headed for the November ballot, that would change how the state’s $2.3 billion Permanent School Fund pays out to schools. And the New Mexico State Land Office signed a $98.9 million wind-energy lease on state trust lands in Torrance County.
BLM rescinds the 2024 Public Lands Rule
The federal Bureau of Land Management on May 12 rescinded its 2024 Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, commonly known as the Public Lands Rule. The 2024 rule had let federal land managers treat conservation as a legitimate use of public land alongside grazing, mining, and energy development. The rescission, effective June 11, removes that footing. The matter touches school trust lands because state-trust parcels in most western states sit side by side with federal parcels in a checkerboard pattern — when federal policy leans toward extraction, demand for adjacent state-trust mineral leases tends to rise. Coverage: Deseret News, Source New Mexico.
Minnesota: Permanent School Fund payout amendment heads for the November ballot
The Minnesota Senate on May 7 passed an amended version of HF 3900 / SF 3593, a proposed constitutional amendment that would change how the state’s $2.3 billion Permanent School Fund distributes earnings to public schools. The current formula sends only interest and dividends to schools; the amendment would shift to an endowment-style payout of 4.5 percent of the fund’s three-year average net asset value, starting July 1, 2027. The bill must return to the House for final concurrence on the Senate’s changes before the question can appear on the November 2026 ballot, where voters will decide. Coverage: KAXE, Brainerd Dispatch.
New Mexico signs $98.9M wind-energy lease on state trust lands
New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard on May 6 signed a lease agreement with AFE Cedarvale Wind LLC for a 10,160-acre wind facility on state trust lands in Torrance County, about 8 miles northwest of Corona. The developer paid $340,000 at public auction for the lease right; the project is expected to generate 212 megawatts of capacity — enough to power roughly 60,000 homes — and yield approximately $98.9 million for New Mexico public schools over the agreement’s life. Construction is targeted for 2027 and commercial operations for 2029. This is the second-largest wind project on New Mexico state trust lands by expected output. Coverage: Albuquerque Journal, KOB.
America’s school trust lands move through state legislatures, courts, agency boardrooms, and lease desks — rarely all visible in one news cycle. This Newsroom’s job is to put the week’s moves in one place, so anyone who cares about these lands can stay current with what is being done to them.
Published by Oregon Advocates for School Trust Lands (OASTL), 12875 Kings Valley Highway, Monmouth, OR 97361. Editor: Dave Sullivan. Editorial methodology: https://schooltrusts.net/newsroom/about/.
The Newsroom is the national newsletter of Advocates for School Trust Lands. Published weekly Mondays with a monthly summary mid-month. Each edition reads on schooltrustlands.net/newsroom/ and here on OASTL Oregon. Subscribe at either property.