Online Exclusive: Western Wildfires

The Magazine of the American Landowner presents the first in a series by Field Reporter Joe Nick Patoski as he takes a closer look at the wildfires raging out West.

The American West is on fire again, with wildfires breaking out across the Gila Wilderness in southwest New Mexico, around Ruidoso in southeastern New Mexico, and throughout Colorado. The Gila fire now ranks as the worst in New Mexico’s recorded history. Colorado’s High Park fire (pictured above) west of Fort Collins has destroyed more homes in state history. And all that was before summer even officially started.

Most western states have been experiencing drier-than-normal range conditions, and many regions are officially in drought. Conditions have been ripe for a major outbreak quite awhile. Maybe it’s an old writer’s faded memory, but it seems like massive wildfires used to happen every three or four years. Lately, it’s pretty much an annual occurrence, a seasonal rite, if you will.

Last year, Texas burned. Four million acres were scorched and it took 16,000 emergency responders from all 50 states and Puerto Rico to tamp it down. Wildfires near Fort Davis in Far West Texas and around Bastrop in Central Texas were the two worst in state history.

Other states will have their turn soon enough. What’s going on here?

Is this normal or an aberration? Where do wildfires fit into the big picture, beyond the considerable destruction and property damage in their wake? Who’s paying to fight the fires and to mitigate property damage? The largest mountain pine-beetle epidemic in recorded history, which has ravaged western forests with 3.3 million acres of ponderosa, piñon, whitebark, lodgepole, and eight other pine species destroyed in Colorado alone, has created ideal conditions for fire. The pine beetle’s success is tied to rising temperature, suggesting climate change is another enabling factor for increased wildfire. Forest management practices are being scrutinized, as is the impact of humans. Before European pioneers arrived to establish permanent settlements, the natives let fires burn. Are we tilting against windmills trying to stop them? Most important, what can communities and individuals do to protect their land and to lower the risk?

We can argue about what it all means until we’re gone, but the good news is there are answers to these questions. Accumulated data, good science, history, facts, truths, and verities all tell stories worth telling that inform and expand our knowledge about western wildfires.

Over the next few weeks, while the western forests and rangeland burns, we’ll visit with some folks whose perspectives on fire, ecosystems, biology, prescribed burns, economics, erosion, range science, meteorology, and, of course, land ownership have the potential to inform and enlighten if we’re willing to read, listen, and ponder. That won’t stop the fires from breaking out, but it can certainly make our responses smarter.

Read part two of this series here.

Land Report May 2012 Newsletter

Many items to consider from our May newsletter, but let’s stick to page one material. The Land Report Top Ten has a brand-new look with Montana’s Broken O Ranch now crowning the list. The 124,000-acre Bates Sanders Swan listing features more than 20 miles of the Sun River, carries 3,500 mother cows, and produces about 25,000 tons of alfalfa hay and 700,000 bushels of small grain crops annually. At $132.5 million, it’s not a ranch. It’s a hedge fund, one built on a rock-solid agricultural asset.

Two properties have joined the Top Ten: Hawaii’s Dillingham Ranch, our new No. 5 at $65 million, which is listed by Zackary Wright with Christie’s; and Swain’s Neck on Nantucket Island, the new No. 7 at $59 million, courtesy of Gary Winn at Maury People Sotheby’s International Realty. There has been a $5 million reduction on No. 4 California’s Rancho Dos Pueblos, which Kerry Mormann & Associates now has listed for $79 million.

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. The Land Report is now on Pinterest.

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

Land Report April 2012 Newsletter

Our April newsletter features more reports from the Federal Reserve on rising ag land values. The Seventh District, which is based out of Chicago and is home to a wide swath of the Midwest, saw a 22%  increase in land values last year. This spike corroborates activity seen in other ag-related markets, such as Hall & Hall’s successful auction of Oklahoma’s Waurika Farms for $11 million on April 12.

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. The Land Report is also on Pinterest.

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

Sold! Fortress Cliffs Ranch

MARCH 29, 2012 POST:
Texas Parks & Wildlife voted to sell 2,014 acres of the Fortress Cliffs Ranch adjoining Palo Duro Canyon State Park to Sooter Ranch of Perryton for $2.4 million. The acreage is under a conservation easement held by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

Read more HERE.

SEPTEMBER 17, 2008 POST:

Almost 3,000 pristine acres valued at more than $5 million along the rim of Palo Duro Canyon has been sold to The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a nonprofit land conservation organization. After purchasing the Texas Panhandle property, TPL immediately transferred it to Texas Parks & Wildlife, thus increasing the size of Palo Duro Canyon State Park by nearly 10 percent.

“The sale of this property represents the core of our company’s mission,” says John Watson, President & CEO of Orvis/Cushman & Wakefield in Colorado Springs, which brokered the sale.

Watson spent more than a year spearheading the deal: securing the listing, seeking out TPL and introducing them to Texas Parks & Wildlife, and then patiently shepherding the transaction through numerous appraisals and reviews. “There is a finite supply of investment-grade recreational properties, and Orvis/Cushman & Wakefield’s goal is to find the best stewards for the protection and appreciation of the land,” Watson added.

A spectacular sporting and recreational property, the 2,864-acre Fortress Cliffs Ranch was recently appraised at $5.22 million ($1,800+ per acre). By deeding it to the State of Texas, TPL increased the size of the adjacent 29,187-acre Palo Duro Canyon State Park by almost 10 percent. “The rare chance to protect six miles of cliffs overlooking the Grand Canyon of Texas, to keep that bluff looking the way the first Texans saw it — this is unparalleled,” said Carter Smith, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department executive director. “I know all Texans can appreciate the significance of this acquisition for our park system. It’s for everyone alive today, and for generations to come.”

The deal closed on August 28.

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.

Federal Grazing Fees Remain Unchanged

Uncle Sam announced that grazing fees in 16 Western states will remain the same as 2011. The new pricing structure goes into effect on March 1. A fee of $1.35 per animal unit month (AUM) will apply to nearly 18,000 grazing permits and leases administered by the Bureau of Land Management and more than 8,000 permits administered by the Forest Service. The fee per month applies to any of the following: one cow and her calf; one horse; five goats; or five sheep. Under an Executive Order issued in 1986, $1.35 per month is the minimum allowable fee.

Click here to read more.

Grand Canyon Lands Withdrawn from New Claims

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced his decision to protect more than 1 million acres of federal lands surrounding the Grand Canyon and its vital watershed from additional uranium and other hardrock mining for the next 20 years. The Public Land Order to withdraw this acreage for 20 years from new mining claims and sites under the 1872 Mining Law is authorized by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.

The withdrawn area includes 355,874 acres of U.S. Forest Service land on the Kaibab National Forest; 626,678 acres of Bureau of Land Management lands; and 23,993 acres of split estate—where surface lands are held by other owners while subsurface minerals are owned by the federal government.

Read the Interior Department press release here.

Land Report January 2012 Newsletter

Here’s a great way to start your year: the January edition of The Land Report newsletter.

This issue is chock full of stories and links to essential resources, including the Winter 2011 issue of The Land Report and of course January’s Land Report Top Ten.

As you might imagine, December wrapped up with a slew of end-of-the-year closings, and several key ones are detailed in the January newsletter, including the sale of Montana’s Horse Ranch and the sealed-bid auction of the Robert Mondavi Estate in Napa.

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.

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

Land Report Top 10: Aspen Valley Ranch

Situated in the picturesque valley just outside of Aspen, the Aspen Valley Ranch is the last working ranch in the area that reflects the mountain heritage of the West.

At 813 acres, this prestigious family legacy ranch is a rare offering in Woody Creek, Colorado. With its unique traits of both a historic, working ranch and a luxurious recreational getaway, this property features senior water rights, irrigated pastures, and a new 10-stall horse barn. Additionally, its proximity to public lands, trails, wildlife, the Roaring Fork River, and a handful of Aspen ski areas provides ample recreational opportunities.

Aspen Valley Ranch is listed with Joshua & Co. For more information, contact Joshua Saslove at (970) 948-3876 or joshua@joshuaco.com.

Click here to see the full list of Land Report’s Top 10 priciest properties.

Land Report Top 10: Walton Ranch

Walton Ranch, situated in the shadow of Wyoming’s magnificent Grand Teton Mountain Range, is one of the most exquisite, authentic working cattle ranches in the American West today. The 1,848-acre ranch has its own resident elk herd, which can be seen on the property daily, and is home to deer, eagles and bears. The three miles of Snake River running along the ranch’s western boundary supports native and resident trophy rainbow and brown trout.

Nestled in the middle of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, this area is densely populated with many rare and spectacular wildlife species including elk, moose, mule deer, grizzly and black bears, mountain goat, antelope, bighorn sheep, foxes, coyotes, eagles, great owls, mountain lions and wolves.

Its proximity to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks offers a wide array of recreational opportunities, from mountaineering and fly-fishing to white-water rafting, wildlife expeditions, and hiking.

Surrounded by natural beauty, Walton Ranch offers a rare opportunity to own a sizable ranch in one of the most sought after locations in the world.

Walton Ranch is listed with Ranch Marketing Associates. For more information, contact Ron Morris or Billy Long at (970) 535-0881.

Click here to see the full list of Land Report’s Top 10 priciest properties.

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