New legislatively created working group could impact operations of energy, agriculture companies

A legislatively created working group will begin meeting in the coming months to determine the future of some 4 million acres in state lands that are vital to the agriculture, energy and recreation industries but are caught in a debate on the best uses for the properties.

Gov. Jared Polis last month signed into law House Bill 1332, which creates a formal working group to try to improve conservation, agricultural operations and outdoor recreation on properties overseen by the Colorado State Land Board. The board manages land the federal government granted Colorado in public trust, and it earns nearly $300 million annually for schools by leasing land for mineral extraction, grazing, renewable-energy development, carbon sequestration and recreational services like camping, hiking and horseback riding.

With the board’s 150^th anniversary coming next year, legislators said they wanted to understand first how it is meeting its core objectives — to produce reasonable and consistent income over time and to provide sound stewardship of state trust assets. And then they wanted to study opportunities to advance conservation, climate resilience, biodiversity and recreation on these lands, which generated the bill to create a 25-person group that will start meeting by September and have recommendations by the end of 2026.

Initially, both agricultural and traditional energy interests worried that the group could seek to undermine the leases that both sectors rely upon for access to critical resources. A full 98% of the board’s 2.8 million surface acres are used for agricultural leases — grazing, dry land crop production and irrigated farming — while mineral-extraction leases in the 4 million subsurface acres account for more than 80% of the land board’s revenues.

Changes to bill calm agriculture, energy leaders

House and Senate sponsors added several provisions meant to assuage concerns. Oil-and-gas operators got a second seat on the working group, for example, and particular legislative caucus leaders got specific appointments so that Republicans could select agriculture and energy leaders and Democrats environmental leaders.

But backers insisted that the group must ensure that the land board’s priorities allow for a wide variety of uses, including potentially affordable housing, that both bring in money for schools and use the land in the smartest way possible. Farming and ranching must continue to have access to the state land, they insisted, but officials should look too at increasing low-impact recreational usage, consider conservation, preserve the land and take water usage into account.

“By integrating conservation, recreation and agriculture, we’re ensuring that future generations of Coloradans can continue to enjoy our land while supporting the livelihoods of farmers and ranchers,” sponsoring Rep. Karen McCormick, D-Longmont, said.

Many business groups, including the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, dropped their opposition as the bill advanced and changed, but Republicans opposed it, with none supporting it in the House and only three of 12 caucus members backing it in the Senate. Rep. Larry Don Suckla, R-Cortez, said the working group could try to cut down on the many types of leases for State Land Board properties and, if that leans away from extraction or agriculture and toward lower-revenue recreation, could reduce needed school funding.

Some rural leaders say conversation is needed

One of the few Republicans who supported the bill was Sen. Byron Pelton, a Sterling Republican who represents the upper half of the Eastern Plains, and he said he looks forward to discussions that could resolve current conflicts around state property leases. He appreciated amendments to ensure that no current leases will be upended, he said, and feels like there needs to be bigger conservations about the clash of agricultural and renewable-energy interests so that they can both use state land effectively.

“I want to make sure with the working group that they have a discussion about what happens when state land is taken out of production for green energy, because that hurts our economy,” Pelton said during debate in the Senate on May 6. “I want to make sure we have this discussion, because there is a way to make both of these things work.”

But even before the working group is assembled, there is rising bipartisan concern about the current director of the State Land Board. On May 23, the 17 members of the Rural Caucus, including Democratic House Speaker Julie McCluskie and Republican Assistant Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson, sent a letter to Polis airing concerns over his appointment of Nicole Rosmarino as board director.

State Land Board director courts controversy

Rosmarino, the letter charged has advocated for “re-wilding” the West — a concept that generally involves ending livestock grazing on some lands and reintroducing native species — and is affiliated with groups like The Rewilding Institute that think the same. Those ideas, the caucus members wrote, run in stark contrast with the aims and policies of the State Land Board and could pose threats for ranchers and agricultural producers.

Caucus members went on to write that their representatives met with Rosmarino and received assurances from her that she recognizes grazing’s role in sustainable land management and will uphold the mission of the board. But it’s clear with that dispute already emerging that the proceedings of the working group, which must have an interim report ready for the Legislature by February, could be critical for numerous industries that have grown in partnership with the State Land Board.

“We expect Colorado’s agricultural producers to remain central to the use and stewardship of our state trust lands,” caucus members wrote. “Any shift toward ideological land management at the expense of proven partnerships would be a disservice to the land, our rural communities and the school trust itself.”