School Lands

The public lands under the Commission’s jurisdiction are of two distinct types—sovereign lands acquired upon California’s admission into the Union in 1850; and certain federally granted lands including school lands, and swamp and overflowed lands.

For purposes of this GIS data, sovereign lands are considered to be further divided into two general categories—fixed-boundary sovereign lands and ambulatory-boundary sovereign lands. The following lands are included in this data: School lands: These are what remain of the nearly 5.5 million acres throughout the state originally granted to California by Congress in 1853 to benefit public education. NOT INCLUDED IN THIS DATA: Ambulatory-boundary state sovereign lands, which include the beds of California’s naturally navigable rivers, streams and lakes.