In 1961, Wall Street mogul Averell Harriman — owner of Union Pacific Railroad, founder of the Sun Valley Resort, former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union and Great Britain, and one of the architects of the postwar world — did the people of Idaho a big favor.

My family will give you our 11,000-acre ranch on Henrys Fork, Harriman told then-Gov. Robert Smylie — if you establish a professional parks department to manage it.

That took some doing. But after two tries, Smylie, in 1965, finally got the Idaho Legislature to sign on. So the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation was born.

Forty-five years later, the agency is about to die.

In his State of the State Address last Monday,Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter proposed folding Parks and Rec into the Idaho Department of Lands — some responsibilities would devolve to the Department of Fish and Game — and saving $10 million of general fund money.

The IDOL would be a one-stop shop for users of public lands, the governor told the Legislature.

We have our doubts.

For starters, the Harrimans — still represented by the best lawyers in America — stipulated before they turned over Railroad Ranch to Idaho that the land would revert back to the family if the state ever dissolved Parks and Rec.

Whether shuffling Harriman State Park into the care of the IDOL meets the terms of the bequest, we don’t know. IDOL, after all, isn’t a parks management agency. It’s a revenue-generating entity.

The Department of Lands is constitutionally required to “professionally and prudently” manage Idaho’s endowment assets to maximize long-term financial returns to public schools and other trust beneficiaries. Five statewide elected officials — Otter, Secretary of State Ben Ysursa, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, State Controller Donna Jones and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna — supervise it.

IDOL doesn’t build trails, fix outhouses, conduct interpretive lectures or provide directions to tourists. It’s a different kind of animal.

When Idaho became a state in 1890, it was given 3.7 million acres for the support of state institutions. The land was granted on condition that it be managed in perpetuity as a trust for the beneficiary institutions.

This mandate was codified in Article IX Section 8 of the Constitution, which says that the lands are to be managed, “...in such manner as will secure the maximum long term financial return to the institution to which granted.” Chief among the beneficiaries are the public schools, which received two sections of every township in the state (1/18 of the total land base). Other beneficiaries include the University of Idaho and its agricultural college, the Albion and Lewiston normal schools, state prisons, charitable institutions, State Hospital South in Blackfoot and public buildings.

IDOL’s management isn’t intended to benefit the general public, but directed solely to the good of the beneficiaries of the original land grants. Money generated from the management of these lands is deposited into the earnings reserve fund from which the costs of management and payments to the beneficiaries are made. Revenue from mineral royalties is deposited into the permanent endowment fund. Both the earnings reserve and permanent fund are invested by the Endowment Fund Investment Board.

The investment return is distributed to the schools and other entities. Land sale revenue is deposited into the land bank and is available to purchase other land. If not expended for that purpose within five years, the land sale revenue is deposited into a permanent fund.

Unless the Legislature amends the Constitution, the IDOL simply isn’t a Smoky Bear-and-Ranger Rick organization.

And we’re not sure it should try to be. Especially in a tight economy, the IDOL and the Land Board ought to be focused to generating money for public schools.

Period.

Harriman got it right when he insisted on professional management of the property he gave to Idaho. Only that can insure access by all Idahoans to the best of their lands.