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Bradbury, Kulongoski, Edwards
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Beginning with Ohio in 1802, the U.S. Congress awarded specific sections of land to states when they entered the Union with the stipulation that the proceeds from these lands be used for educational purposes.
In Oregon, the lands originally granted by Congress under the Oregon Admission Act included roughly 6% of the new state´s land for the use of schools.
The state also received all of the submerged and submersible lands underlying navigable waterways.
These lands and their mineral, timber and other resources, along with the income from the lands, were dedicated to Oregon´s Common School Fund, a trust for the benefit of the state´s public K-12 schools.
The State Land Board, composed of the Governor, Secretary of State and State Treasurer, was established under the Oregon Constitution to manage these lands and serve as trustee of the Fund.
Oregon´s Constitution, Article VIII, Section 5(2), specifies that the Board
…shall manage lands under its jurisdiction with the object of obtaining the greatest benefit for the people of this state, consistent with the conservation of this resource under sound techniques of land management.
Over the years, many of the original school land sections were sold or traded to private individuals and other agencies. Today, the Board´s land base  includes nearly two million acres of state land and resource assets, including agricultural and rangeland in eastern Oregon, forest land in western Oregon, numerous small tracts, and the submerged and submersible lands beneath the state´s tidally-influenced and navigable waterways. The Board also holds title to mineral rights on all these lands and manages the mineral rights on other state agency lands (about 3.2 million acres total).
The Board leases state lands and other resources to public and private interests for a variety of business activities. Rangeland is leased to ranchers for grazing, timber is sold, and waterway areas are leased for uses such as sand and gravel removal, houseboat moorages, marinas and log storage.
The Department of State Lands, as the administrative agency of the Land Board, manages these activities with the exception of forest land management, which is performed by the Oregon Dept. of Forestry under a contract with the Land Board. The rents and royalties received from these activities are deposited in the Common School Fund.
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