Agricultural News
Commissioners of the Land Office Prepare for Upcoming Land Auctions
Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:06:06 CDT
The Commissioners of the Land Office, often called the School Land Commission, is gearing up for a handful of public auctions to lease their land for either agricultural or recreational purposes. Harry Birdwell, Secretary of the Commissioners of the Land Office, says these annual auctions are a great resource for the state of Oklahoma.
The Commissioners of the Land Office manages about 750,000 surface acres of land for the state and leases about one-fifth of this land through public auctions. The land is placed up for auction as a lease for five years. All of the proceeds or income from these auctions goes to benefit common and higher education in the state, which Birdwell says is the overall purpose of the CLO.
Birdwell also says that if you look over the last 10 years, the amount of money that the agency has generated through agricultural leases has remained fairly constant, however, the big increase has been in oil and gas leasing. Through exploring for petroleum, the agency last year generated almost $125 million to distribute to public schools and selective higher education says Birdwell.
In addition to that, Birdwell adds, the CLO manages about $2 billion in a trust for the benefit of education, which has been generated because of royalty payments over the years or because of the sale of land.
The lease auctions for agricultural or recreational purposes will begin in mid-October and continue through the first of November. All of the dates for the lease auctions are listed in our Calendar section- or you can find it by clicking here.
Click on the LISTEN bar below to hear the rest of Ron Hays and Harry Birdwell's discussion on the Commissioners of the Land Office and the upcoming agricultural lease auctions. Also, You can also see Ron and Harry on KWTV News 9 during the Into the Field segment at 6:40 a.m.
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