School Lands

School Lands were granted to the State of California on March 3, 1853, by an Act of Congress (Ch. 145, 10 Stat. 244) for the purpose of supporting public schools. These lands consisted of the 16th and 36th sections of land in each township, save lands reserved for other public purposes, lands previously conveyed, e.g., rancho lands, sovereign lands, and swamp or overflowed lands, and lands known to be mineral in character. A supplementary act in 1927 expanded the grant to include minerals (Ch. 57, 44 Stat. 1026). No federal patents to the state were required under the grant; title to the lands was vested in the state upon approval of U.S. Township Survey Plats.

There are no school lands in Alameda, Butte, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Kings, Marin, Merced, Orange, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sierra, Solano, Stanislaus, Sutter, Ventura, and Yolo counties.

Indemnity School Lands (also known as lieu lands)

When a Section 16 or Section 36 was not granted to California because of an exception, the state was given the opportunity to select replacement lands from the United States (Ch. 81 19 Stat. 267). Each transaction involved several steps. First, the state filed a list with the federal government describing the lands lost, which were known as base lands. Second, the state filed a list with the federal government describing other federal lands selected in place of the base lands. When the federal government approved replacement lands, it issued the state a Clear List. California’s rights to the base lands were relinquished back to the federal government and title to the selected lands became vested in the state. The Clear List was the document of conveyance; no patents were issued by the federal government.

Forested School Lands

Approximately 55,000 acres of school land are forested and vulnerable to wildfires. The Commission developed a school lands forest information system, a web-based tool that uses publicly available data to provide forest attribute information for school lands parcels to inform forest management. This is the first step in building a forest inventory.

In January 2026, the Commission and the Truckee Fire Protection District launched the Prosser Dam Fuel Reduction Project on school lands near Truckee. The project goals are to improve fire resiliency and forest health, and to reduce wildfire risk to critical infrastructure and the Truckee community in a dense 109-acre pine forest. This project, the first Commission-managed fuels reduction project in decades, is funded by the School Land Bank Fund and the Truckee Fire Protection District. The Commission is facilitating a second fuel-reduction project, the Shasta Springs Fuel Reduction Project, near the town of Weaverville. This project is a collaboration between the Commission and the Trinity County Resource Conservation District that is intended to improve fire resiliency and oak woodland habitat. Forest material was placed into piles in the fall of 2025 and are expected to be burned later this winter. The Prosser Dam Fuel Reduction Project is scheduled to be completed by November 20, 2026. Consistent with California’s 2021 Wildfire & Forest Resilience Action Plan, the Commission continues to assess the condition of forested school lands and to identify and treat parcels requiring fuel reduction.

• The School Lands Forest Information System Phase I Report and Recommendations