National Association of State Trust Lands
The National Association of State Trust Lands is a United States public-benefit nonprofit corporation that represents the state land administrators of 23 primarily western states. It was known as the Western States Land Commissioners Association from its formation in 1949 until 2020.
History
NASTL was chartered in 1949, but its history can be traced to an earlier organization, the Land Commissioners Association, which was formed in Salt Lake City in November 1931. It was founded by the state land administrators of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The LCA disbanded in 1934 after the Taylor Grazing Act rendered much of its activities obsolete, and the states returned to dealing with their land use concerns individually.In 1949, the land administrators for eleven states chartered the Western States Land Commissioners Association. These officials felt that federal administrators at the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management did not understand their day-to-day concerns and felt the need to speak with a unified voice.
In the 1990s, the WSLCA began to work more closely with a sister organization, the Eastern Land and Resources Council, which focused on land stewardship east of the Mississippi River. The two organizations frequently sponsored joint conferences. In 2014, the WSLCA changed its bylaws to allow non-governmental affiliate members to join. And in 2020, in an effort to broaden its appeal to governments outside the Western United States, it changed its name to the National Association of State Trust Lands.