Largest 100 Private Landowners in the US

[smstonypoint]

I receive The Land Report magazine through my membership in the Forest Landowners Association. The latest issue contains a listing of the largest landowners in the US. The online version is available (The Land Report - 2012) and the listing begins on page 64.

John Malone (Liberty Mutual) tops the list with 2.2M acres in Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Maine, and New Hampshire. His holdings are larger in area than Serbia!

Ted Turner comes in second with 2M+ acres. You have to top 155K acres to edge out the 100th owner on the list, the Fanjuls in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Steve

 

[dmccarty]

I receive The Land Report magazine through my membership in the Forest Landowners Association. The latest issue contains a listing of the largest landowners in the US. The online version is available (The Land Report - 2012) and the listing begins on page 64.

John Malone (Liberty Mutual) tops the list with 2.2M acres in Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Maine, and New Hampshire. His holdings are larger in area than Serbia!

Ted Turner comes in second with 2M+ acres. You have to top 155K acres to edge out the 100th owner on the list, the Fanjuls in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Steve

Yeah, but the Fanjul's land is mostly swamp land! :laughing: They grow sugar cane on that land.

I have been on some of the sugar cane "farms" and they are HUGE. You can drive for hours along 27 and see nothing but cane. Get onto the farms and it just goes on and on and on.

I read the propaganda they had in the link. The only reason those So and So's are releasing clean water is that the law is forcing them too. The quality of the water they used to release into the Everglades was horrible. I have been on a canal right next to their fields and the water, which should have been clear, was so dirty you could not see down but a foot or so. I was working with some fishery biologists and we measured that water. I have been in areas of the Everglades were the water is crystal clear and full of fish. The canal had fish but mostly walking cat fish. We know because we were electro fishing and pulling the fish out to measure and count. Not many native fish but we found some. The chemicals in the water was horrible as well. The sugar "farmers" pump the water onto the land and the pump it off. What they put on the fields then goes into the Everglades.

During one of the droughts before I left FLA, one of the sugar cane propagandists stated that most of the water in South FLA was used by the people in the cities. This was not true, the sugar farms were using 2/3-3/4s of the water. We all pay extra for sugar too. There are Federal protections that keep sugar prices high for no good reason. The growers used to use migrant labor from the islands instead of machines. They did this because they were not paying the men what they should have been. Once they got caught they got rid of the workers and bought machines. Belle Glade FLA, which was in the midst of the cane growing areas had, if not the highest, one of the highest, rates of HIV infection in the US due to the migrant workers.

Don't get me started on the sugar cane "farms" and the Fanjuls. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[texasjohn]

Thanks, I found some ranches there that I know the people on...sadly, I'm not in the list.

 

[dmccarty]

Thanks, I found some ranches there that I know the people on...sadly, I'm not in the list.

I figured you were number 101 or 102 and just barely missed the list. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[creekbend]

Re.dmccarty I know exactly what you are referring to. What about when they burn the cane fields? Smoke is in the air for miles around.

 

[texasjohn]

I guess you guys are against water and air pollution...so am I, I like to breathe and drink without fear.:2cents:

 

[Redbug]

I think Ted Turner is moer conservation minded. Some of what I have read points out that Ted is going to own one of the largest aquifers in the west, also...the Ogallala Aquifer. Not all the wealth is above ground. Pretty shrewd. But business men are...
Ted Turner, Land Buyer | Suite101

 

[mjarrels]

Same thing can be said about T. B. Pickens buying land for so called green energy windmills. Its all about the water rights. Best thing is Pickens an Turner all getting close to death from old age.

mark

 

[smstonypoint]

You have to top 155K acres to edge out the 100th owner on the list, the Fanjuls in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Steve

I figured you were number 101 or 102 and just barely missed the list. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

My mistake. The Fanjuls were featured on the last page and I assumed incorrectly that they finished 100th. They actually finished 63rd. The good news is that you need only 100K acres to make the list.

Steve

 

[dmccarty]

Re.dmccarty I know exactly what you are referring to. What about when they burn the cane fields? Smoke is in the air for miles around.

The burning could be bad and it was part of the process. I have seen the Everglades burning a few times and it was as bad or worse. Some of the Everglade fires would cause power outages when the fire got under the transmission lines. At least the cane fires left the power alone. :laughing: But driving bloody 27, a dangerous road at any time, was much worse when the fields were being burned or the trucks were hauling cane.

The fires did not bother me that much. What the "farmers" were doing to water quality and lying about it is what ticks me off. That and hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by the taxpayer to drain swamp to make farmland. Then the taxpayer pays more in high sugar prices because of the Federal price supports. Great scam if you can work it.

The other sad thing is that these farms loose soil and at some point they will be down to limestone bedrock. There was a concrete post driven into bedrock back in the 20's or 30's. Six feet of it is was out of the ground back around 1990. That much soil had been lost due to the soil being exposed to air. These farms are simply unsustainable. I think the majority of farmers work to protect their land. They know if they abuse the land they loose productivity, money and eventually their way of life. The Cane business was not responsible at all from what I could tell.

Later,
Dan