The Daily Yonder Timber, Condos, Glamping? States Debate Land Use to Fund Schools With diminishing revenues from traditional use of trust lands, states turn to alternatives like aggressive real estate development, stoking fears of unwelcome changes to long established communities. Share this: This stand of state trust land forest near Washington’s Merrill Lake is logged to provide revenue for schools. (Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts) Checkerboarded across the landscape of the American West are thousands of parcels of state-owned land that collectively cover an area larger than North Dakota. They include vast swaths of forest and prairie, fracking wells, coal mines, luxury housing developments, parking lots, cell towers and solar panels.