The Land Report Spring 2012

Enjoy the Spring issue of The Land Report!

Learn the stories of America’s Best Brokerages in our second annual survey. More than 70 are profiled from coast to coast. Read how Bernie Uechtritz pulled off 2011′s Deal of the Year by selling Camp Cooley Ranch in just 45 days. Find out why George Clooney has such strong ties to the land in the Academy Award-winning movie The Descendants.

For more up to the minute reports on listings, auctions, sales, and breaking news pertaining to land and landowners, be sure to follow The Magazine of the American Landowner on Facebook and Twitter. Better yet, Land Report is now on Pinterest.

P.S. Our award-winning quarterly magazine is available in a print version via subscription.

Land Report March 2012 Newsletter

The Spring issue of The Land Report has arrived!

Right now it’s en route to bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and subscribers’ offices around the world, but thanks to the miracles of modern technology you can read right now right HERE.

Learn the stories of America’s Best Brokerages in our second annual survey. More than 70 are profiled from coast to coast. Read how Bernie Uechtritz pulled off 2011′s Deal of the Year by selling Camp Cooley Ranch in just 45 days. Find out why George Clooney has such strong ties to the land in the Academy Award-winning movie The Descendants.

For more up to the minute reports on listings, auctions, sales, and breaking news pertaining to land and landowners, be sure to follow The Magazine of the American Landowner on Facebook and Twitter. Better yet, Land Report is now on Pinterest.

P.S. Our award-winning quarterly magazine is available in a print version via subscription.

Our Holiday Gift to You: The Story of Taylor’s Trees

Most everyone who knew Taylor Emmons marveled at his athletic abilities, sense of sportsmanship, love of the outdoors, and his empathetic nature. His untimely passing was felt by thousands, as evidenced by the capacity crowd at his celebration of life service. Thanks to his purpose-driven father, a ton of collective effort, and some foresight from Taylor himself, the passions that marked this great kid’s life will be perpetuated through the Taylor Emmons Scholarship Fund and Taylor’s Trees. At the heart of these dual philanthropic tributes is a rich parcel of Maine timberland.

This whole process started before Taylor died, and it just kind of dovetailed into his legacy,” says his father, Mike Emmons. Some seven years ago, the family moved from Maine to Sarasota so that Taylor’s older brother, Mikey, could develop his baseball skills at the world renowned IMG Academy. Taylor was enrolled at The Out-of-Door Academy (ODA), and he flourished at the college prep school. The National Honor Society member was captain of the golf team, co-captain of the baseball team, and named Homecoming King by his schoolmates. “He loved The Out-of-Door Academy,” says his dad. “He did well academically, did very well in sports, and was just a very popular kid.”

Taylor graduated from ODA and was a University of Miami sophomore when he was fatally struck by an SUV near the Coral Gables campus in December 2010. He was 19.

“The thing about Taylor — and it’s easy for me to say because I was his dad — but you talk to anybody and they’ll tell you that even though he was a really good looking kid and a good athlete, he treated everybody the same. He liked everybody, and everybody liked him. I don’t know what the final number was, but when he died, the funeral home had never seen a crowd that big.”

Emmons, a 30-year veteran of the land game, got his start with Harry Patten in 1980 (see Land Report Summer 2009). He also pursued investments on his own. A few years ago, he came across the parcel of timberland from which Taylor’s Trees would evolve.

“I had an acquisitions guy who was out looking for property,” Emmons recalls. “I had moved to Florida and went up to Maine for a week to Sugarloaf to go skiing, and he said, ‘Mike, I think you ought to come take a look at this piece of property. It seems like a pretty good deal.’

“So I skipped a day of skiing and went and looked at this piece of property in Maine. It was a great deal, and I bought it. It was 9,000 acres. It didn’t really have any timber value. About 2,000 acres had been put into a conservation easement to protect the two streams. I took the other 7,000 acres and subdivided it into some 500-acre tracts and just never got around to selling it. The more time I spent up there, the more I fell in love with the place. The idea of owning 7,000 acres and growing timber on it and passing it on to my kids started appealing to me. So I decided not to sell it,” he says.

During his junior year, Taylor had participated in an Out-of-Door Academy program in which the school’s students stuffed backpacks with basic school necessities for kids without the means to buy them themselves. The experience was an eye-opener, and the teen expressed concern about the thousands of homeless kids in otherwise affluent Sarasota.

“Taylor said, ‘there seems to me there’s something we ought to be able to do,’” recalls his dad. “It really bothered him.” The thought stuck with Mike as well:

“I got to thinking about it from time to time, and then one day I got a call from Josh Rhodes, who hunts bear on our property in Maine. Josh says, ‘do you mind if my wife goes tipping on your property?’ I said, ‘Under one condition. You’ve got to send me a wreath.’ So two weeks later, I get this absolutely beautiful wreath from the clippings off my property, and it smells just like Maine. I got to thinking that maybe we could grow some Christmas trees and ship them down here and the kids from the academy, in conjunction with the underprivileged kids, could sell them [as a fundraiser].” After factoring in the logistics of clearing the land, planting 1,000 trees per acre, and shipping the harvested ones from Maine to Florida, Emmons realized it could be more than a moneymaker. As Taylor had hoped, it could be a great way to help others.

While the first crop of trees grew in, wreath sales would provide a little cash flow. At the same time they would help develop a customer base.

“Originally my thought was to raise money for the school as well as the disadvantaged kids,” he says.

Emmons and David Mahler, headmaster at ODA, held a series of meetings to discuss the project. Mahler was intrigued with the idea and encouraged Emmons to pursue it. “We talked about it before Taylor’s passing, the idea of using some of the proceeds from the tree farm to help these kids,” says Mahler. Today, Emmons’s long-term goal is to create a place in Maine where students from ODA and underprivileged kids from Sarasota can experience the great outdoors while hunting, fishing, pulling lobster traps, and, of course, planting trees.

“It takes about six years for a planted pine to become marketable,” Emmons says. “My daughter, Samantha, was moving from the Lower School to the Upper School, and I said, ‘wouldn’t that be cool if the kids who were in sixth grade actually participated in planting the trees, then six years later, when they’re harvested, they’re actually selling the trees that they helped plant six years before?’”

As summer 2010 got underway, Emmons’s crew cleared the land and planted the first 4,000 trees. Six months later, Taylor’s life was tragically cut short. In lieu of flowers or other tokens of sympathy, the family established the Taylor William Emmons Scholarship Fund and asked for donations in Taylor’s name.

“We’ve received over $136,000 in donations from family, friends, and people we didn’t even know,” Emmons says. “The outpouring was just incredible. To this day the money still pours in.”

In keeping with the legacy, the memorial foundation has partnered with All Faiths Food Bank to sell handmade wreaths from Taylor’s Trees in Maine. All proceeds from the sale of the 22-inch double-sided wreaths will go to the Taylor William Emmons Scholarship Fund and the corresponding backpack program, which feeds hungry children through the food bank.

This past June, the ODA’s baseball field was dedicated in Taylor’s honor. Topping off the ceremony was the announcement of Desmond Lindsay as the first recipient of a Taylor William Emmons Scholarship.

“Desmond possesses a lot of Taylor’s qualities. We have no doubt … he is going to carry on his name perfectly,” says Taylor’s mom, Katie.

“What I want is that every year a kid gets to go to the academy because of Taylor,” Mike Emmons says. “I want to have four kids in the school on scholarship in Taylor’s name. One in every class.” To that end, Emmons has set a goal to generate $1 million so that the scholarship fund can be self-sustaining.

Says David Mahler, “Taylor was a great kid: a strong student, an exceptional athlete, fun-loving, friendly, and outgoing. The Taylor Emmons Scholarship Fund is an incredible way to maintain Taylor’s legacy. It’s really a testament to Mike and Katie and the strength of the Emmons family that in a time of such sorrow and sadness, they’ve decided to changes lives for the better. This scholarship will change innumerable lives going forward.”

The Emmons family also has a living, breathing memento of Taylor’s big-heartedness. Through a Facebook connection, Taylor rescued a dog while in college. When he brought Bella home for Thanksgiving, Mike insisted that Taylor take her to the local shelter in Bradenton. His message was a simple one: college is no place to raise a pet.

The day after Taylor’s tragic accident, his older brother, Mikey, rallied the family to call the shelter and get Bella back. Though she had already been adopted, the shelter understood the family’s circumstances, and made the necessary arrangements for Bella to come home. Another timeless reminder of this wonderful life. — Nancy Myers

To place a wreath order, log on to www.temmons.org. To learn more about the Taylor Emmons Scholarship Fund, call Executive Director Sandy Albano at (941) 915-9249 or send her an email at salbano@temmons.org.

Land’s Best Friend: German Shorthaired

The German shorthair lineage began with the old Spanish pointer – progenitor of the modern pointer – crossed with the bloodhound for scenting ability, foxhound for speed and endurance, and, finally, the pointer. The result was a large, powerful, methodical breed that pointed both furred and feathered game, retrieved from land and water, trailed wounded big game, and even tracked and bayed wild boars.

German shorthairs began to trickle into the U.S. in the 1920s, and found favor with hunters who wanted close-working, easily trained pointing dogs. Most American hunters, however, grounded in a tradition of stylish, big-running, pointers and setters, found the shorthair’s methodical, houndish working style less than inspiring.

After World War II, many of the same economic forces that gave rise to the versatile breeds in Europe – urbanization, shrinking habitat, increased leisure time, and a burgeoning middle class – stimulated interest in multipurpose hunting dogs of all types. Devoted American breeders worked to adapt the shorthair to American conditions while retaining the breed’s versatility.

As a result, today’s hunter can choose from an abundance of excellent German shorthair bloodlines and working styles, from fairly close-ranging dogs that excel at grouse, woodcock, and pheasant hunting to stylish, big runners that scour the countryside for quail and also retrieve doves and fetch ducks from creeks and stock tanks.

Do:

• Pay close attention to bloodlines. Some shorthairs rival English pointers in range and speed, and may be “too much dog” for the average hunter.

• Make your pup a member of the family. German shorthairs form tight bonds.

• Train with firmness and consistency. True to their hound and pointer ancestry, German shorthairs are very intelligent and adept at bending rules.

Don’t:

• Expect your German shorthair to do the work of a Labrador or Chesapeake Bay retriever. The breed is best-suited for fetching from creeks and ponds in moderate conditions.

Land’s Best Friend: Chesapeake Bay Retriever

If you’re a field trialer and perfectionist who expects a highly tractable retriever that always handles precisely, get a Lab. But if you’re a hardcore waterfowler and a bit of a maverick who admires resourcefulness and pure, cussed determination more than absolute obedience, consider a Chessie.

During the 1800s, the Chesapeake Bay retriever earned his keep in rough, cold water, fetching as many as 200 ducks per day for market hunters. At night, he’d guard his boss’s boat and equipment shed. The rough baymen had little time for formal training. Dogs that learned quickly, on the job, got fed. The rest didn’t live to pass on their deficiencies. Those old killers are long gone, but they left behind something of themselves in these big, tough, workaday dogs. Any wonder that in addition to being the toughest retriever in the world, the Chessie is a little independent and protective?

If the Labrador is the sports car of the retriever world, the Chessie is the heavy-duty pickup. Males measure 23-26 inches at the shoulder and run 65-80 pounds; females weigh 55-70 pounds. The coat is short, dense, and oily, with a thick woolly undercoat. The Chessie has no peer when it comes to breaking ice or working for hours in the coldest water.

DO
Consider only working bloodlines.
Seek advice from experienced Chessie owners.
Watch a trained Chessie work before buying a pup.
Make your pup a member of the family.

DON’T
Resort to harsh discipline. Chessies can be temperamental.

Land’s Best Friend: Labrador Retriever

Don’t be fooled by this breed’s easy-going nature – Labs can hunt, and fetch, and countless other tasks. Read more

Land’s Best Friend: Catahoulas

The world’s grittiest dog? The Catahoula.

The boar weighed at least 300 pounds. Guthrie, a two year-old Catahoula, weighed about 60 pounds. The two collided with predictable results. Guthrie, flattened and addled but far from finished, righted himself and pursued. A few minutes later, he and his three pack-mates brought the boar to bay.

I witnessed the collision from 15 yards away. As I huffed toward the squealing and baying, I declared the Catahoula the world’s grittiest dog. Generations of “cracker” cowboys who counted on their Catahoulas to roust wild cattle from palmetto flats would not argue with that appraisal.

Don’t turn a Catahoula loose on your flock of sheep; he’ll eat them up getting them into the pen. Save him for the mad mama Hereford that just ran through your three border collies. Or the boar that cuts up Plott hounds for sport.

Early settlers found versatile hunting and herding dogs among Indians in Louisiana’s Catahoula Lake area. They may have been pure native stock, but they probably shared blood with hunting, herding, and war dogs brought by European explorers. Catahoulas are fierce toward game and rough with livestock but friendly toward humans. Most run about 55 to 80 pounds. Dog lovers are drawn to the Catahoula’s striking coat, athleticism, and ghostly blue or “glass” eyes.

Do:
• Select only from working stock.
• Seek training tips from experienced hunters and herdsmen.

Don’t:
• Worry about eye color. A good dog looks good.
• Get too much white in your dog’s coat.

Land’s Best Friend: The Feist

Don’t be fooled by the small packaging. Feists are equal parts cast iron and nitroglycerin. Ounce for ounce, they may be the toughest dogs in the world. They certainly have my vote as the most versatile.

Feists are working-class in origin and terrier-like in appearance and temperament. Their lineage goes back to terrier breeds developed in Merry Old England to hunt small vermin. Like countless other country traditions, English immigrants brought their terriers to the American colonies. During the late eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, they bred the little dogs for increased hunting and scenting ability by crossing them with curs, beagles, and other scenthounds.

Today, common types of feist include the DenMark feist, the Mullins feist, the Thornberg feist, and the catchall treeing feist. Consistent with their terrier background, feists are fearless and alert, but also companionable and easy to train.

Feists run 20 to 35 pounds and sport a short, low-maintenance coat. Ears may be erect or floppy; bobtails are traditional but not required.

Most feists are silent trailers. Once treed, they alert the hunter with a clear, chopping bark. Although their treeing instinct and natural prey drive make them popular with squirrel and ‘coon hunters, feists also do well with light stock-herding work. Needless to say, they’re deadly on small vermin.

Do:

• Take your feist puppy for frequent walks in the woods as soon as it has completed a course of inoculations.

• Join the National Cur and Feist Breeders Association: 713 E. Sycamore St, Jasonville, IN 47438, (812) 665-3263.

Don’t:

• Introduce a pup to gunfire until it is hunting boldly and shows a strong interest in game.

Henry Chappell’s field reports have been a mainstay of The Land Report since its founding in 2007. In addition to penning Working Dogs of Texas, he recently wrote Under One Fence: The Waggoner Ranch Legacy.