History
 |
In 1876, after three efforts
at statehood, Colorado was granted admission
into the Union. Upon admission, the federal
government granted in trust to the state of
Colorado approximately 4.5 million acres of
land for the specific purpose of generating
revenue for support of state schools. Congress
granted lands to all western states for use
in establishing and maintaining public schools.
Colorado received in the original grant sections
16 and 36 in every township. |
The resulting pattern of state school land provides
the state with incentives to pursue land exchanges
and sales or exchanges of "in-holdings"
of state parcels in federal lands for contiguous
blocks of federal land. The Colorado State Forest
was born from such an exchange.
The Colorado State Forest was officially established
on December 2, 1938, with President Franklin Roosevelt's
issuance of a patent to the state of Colorado
for 70,980 acres. The Forest was the product of
a land exchange between the Colorado State
Board of Land Commissioners (SLB) and
the United States Forest Service (USFS). The land
exchange was initiated in 1934 with the SLB offer
to trade in-holdings for School Sections 16 and
36 within selected USFS boundaries in Colorado
for a contiguous parcel of land.
| The State Forest is a unique
piece of state trust land, with its own enabling
legislation. The enabling legislation established
the name "Colorado State Forest",
probably in respect to the historical Colorado
National Forest. It also specifically called
for the Land Board to "provide for and
extend the practice of...forestry" on
the State Forest. The State Land Board continued
to manage the multiple uses that were on the
Forest when the Land Board acquired it. Grazing,
recreation, and forestry have all been traditional
uses of the State Forest. The Colorado Division
of Parks and Outdoor Recreation began managing
the recreation on the Forest, through an agreement
with the State Land Board, in 1971. Grazing
on the State Forest is managed through a grazing
association. |
 |
The State Forest has a long history of forest
management. An extensive harvesting program on
the Forest was overseen by Land Board foresters
from about 1940 to 1970. The timber harvesting
program supported several large logging camps,
including the Bockman Lumber Camp. This was the
largest logging camp in Colorado history and over
100 men and their families once lived and worked
at this camp. The harvesting peaked in 1955 when
almost 10 million board feet was cut on the Forest.
The level and visibility of the harvesting activity
created some public controversy by the mid-nineteen
sixties, and by the early nineteen seventies the
last of the lumber camps had closed. The State
Land Board contracted with the Colorado State
Forest Service in 1986 to manage the forest resources
on the State Forest.
Top
Colorado State Forest
Main Page
|
