A select number of landowners control a growing percentage of Montana’s private land, according to a study recently published by the journal Environmental Management.

Lead study author Alexander Metcalf told Montana Free Press in a recent conversation that approximately 4,000 landowners in the state control two-thirds of its private land. Metcalf, a social scientist with a keen interest in natural resource management, said consolidated land ownership can give a single property owner the ability to improve or degrade wildlife habitat in “one fell swoop.” Metcalf’s research also has implications for open space and recreational access initiatives in a state that prides itself on its expansive vistas and outdoor heritage.

Working alongside another University of Montana researcher and a University of St. Thomas data scientist, Metcalf used a state-run database to analyze 20 years of property ownership records, ending in 2023. The research team then used AI to sort the records by parcel size and ownership type. 

Late last month, Environmental Management published the researchers’ findings, which are based on an analysis of the approximately 370,000 distinct individuals and entities with landholdings in Montana. The state database that houses that information is called Montana Cadastral.

Metcalf said his findings demonstrate that a “small minority” of landowners have an outsized impact on Montana’s wildlife. Wildlife is considered a “public trust” resource that the state is expected to manage for the benefit of the common good, a centuries-old legal framework that surfaces in conversations about Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ management of elk, in litigation over wolf trapping and hunting, and in streamflow-preservation efforts designed to support fisheries.

Metcalf works for UM’s Human Dimensions Lab, which studies human interactions with the environment. He said he wasn’t surprised by which individuals and corporations topped the list, but he was taken aback by how “extraordinarily large” the most expansive properties are. 

“The graph never stops getting steeper,” Metcalf said. “Thirteen owners own 15% of the private land in the state.”

Landowners in that top-tier category include Ted Turner, the retired broadcast executive who manages his vast North American holdings with an eye toward conservation, and the politically powerful Galt family, which has deep ties to ranching and a burgeoning interest in residential development. Farris and Dan Wilks, who amassed a fortune in the oil and gas industry and use their central Montana holdings as hunting grounds, also emerged toward the top of the heap.

From a conservation perspective, the intense concentration of land ownership in Montana comes with risks and benefits, Metcalf said.

“There are lots of big bites to be had at the apple. This is not a collective action problem with 370,000 participants. The vast majority of land is owned by a handful of thousands, which is a really different ballgame,” he said. “The decisions those landowners make could have really negative consequences for wildlife in one fell swoop, but they could also have really good consequences for wildlife.” 

In a recent conversation with MTFP, Hillary Rosner, an environmental journalist who studied the threats wildlife face for her recently published book “Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World,” underscored wild animals’ reliance on private land.

“Eighty percent of wildlife in the United States live some portion of their life or access resources that they need on private land,” she said. “When you have these huge tracts of private land, it can be great for wildlife.” 

Rosner described several ways conservation-oriented landowners can support wildlife: they can modify or remove fences to make it easier for animals to move and migrate, rehabilitate degraded rangeland to improve forage, or put their property into a conservation easement to restrict habitat-fragmenting residential or commercial development. 

Rosner’s work also demonstrates how “a lack of oversight and a lack of accountability” on private land can compromise ecological webs by, for example, paving them over with asphalt or consuming the water plants and animals need to thrive. 

“The decision one landowner makes can have this incredibly monumental impact, for better or worse, for these private lands,” she said. 

Metcalf’s research also examined what’s happening at the other end of the graph. Parcelization, or the subdivision of formerly intact chunks of land into multiple smaller lots, is also on the rise in Montana. 

Twenty years ago, 100,000 individuals owned land in Montana. That figure has since ballooned to more than 160,000 individuals, according to the study. The development of formerly open land can chop up an animal’s habitat and diminish its food supplies, decrease and pollute critical water sources, and increase the likelihood of a fatal run-in with a vehicle.

Kelly Pohl with Headwaters Economics, a Bozeman-based think tank specializing in planning and land-use issues, described Metcalf’s research as establishing a “really interesting finding” that raises questions about the cost of providing fire and public safety service to rural lots and building out water, sewer and transportation infrastructure. She said it also brings to mind Montana’s multi-billion-dollar outdoor recreation economy, which thrives on open vistas, healthy wildlife populations and recreational access to wild and working landscapes.

Metcalf’s research builds on Headwaters’ analysis of property assessment records administered by the Montana Department of Revenue. Headwaters found that between 2000 and 2021, about 1 million acres of land — an area nearly equal to Glacier National Park — was converted to housing.

“As more people want to live here, we’re going to see more pressure on these important spaces,” said Pohl, Headwaters’ associate director. “There’s this tension between this mythology of what we want Montana to look like and feel like, and the reality that it might make more sense for people to live in towns, where services are going to be more affordable and housing is going to be more affordable.

“As startling as some of the statistics are, it’s also not too late for us to take initiative and be forward-looking and prioritize these values that make Montana such a special place to live,” she added.

Parcelization can also hinder recreational access, according to Public Land Water Access Association’s executive director, Alex Leone. It becomes harder to gain entry to hunting or hiking spots or a fishing hole as the number of owners increases, he said, adding that his organization’s members have seen a rise in absentee landowners drawn to amenity-rich areas of Montana.

“We have several cases right now that involve subdivisions where roads are kind of a problem: Is the road public, is it not? Is there an HOA, is there not? That complicates stuff, too, for access — the more you subdivide stuff, it’s going to … make the public access model more difficult,” Leone said. “It’s a challenge for being able to knock on a door and talk to someone. There’s a ton more doors to knock on.”

Other aspects of Metcalf’s research examined the types of structures —  partnerships, corporations, trusts, estates, etc., — landowners use to control land and documented a rise in nonresident landowners in Montana. Over the past two decades, there has been a 4 percentage point increase in the number of property tax bills sent to out-of-state mailing addresses, a proxy Metcalf used to indicate residency. That figure in 2023 was 17%, up from 13% in 2004. 

Metcalf said those figures are likely undercounted, given that you can own a limited liability company, or LLC, with a Montana tax address, regardless of where you live in the country. 

He said he was surprised to see a marked increase in the number of acres controlled by LLCs. In 2004, 3% of the private land in Montana was controlled by an LLC. Now that figure is 16%. Approximately 9 million acres of private land in Montana are part of an LLC, according to the study, which highlighted the potential for LLCs to hinder transparency and make it harder for neighbors and members of the public to interact with a person.

“Although legal accountability does not vary across ownership type, owners whose names are publicly known are more accessible to [public trust] beneficiaries and accountable for their wildlife management actions via informal governance mechanisms, like social norms,” the study reads. “Although there are opportunities to bolster the wildlife public trust when private landowner and public interests align, accountability of private landowners to public beneficiaries is low and seems to be decreasing in Montana.”

Max Hansen, an attorney who has helped landowners and business owners navigate real estate transactions for more than 30 years, pushed back on the notion that LLCs are designed to obfuscate ownership. Instead, he described them as a liability-shielding structure that has become easier to implement and is “just good business.”

Hansen added in an interview with MTFP on Tuesday that he’s seen a lot of cycles in the real estate industry in the 50 years since he started practicing law in Montana, including a surge in buyers coming from the coasts to insulate themselves from the pandemic and its side effects. Even now, amid a softening real estate market, Hansen said Montana still has a distinct appeal for “captains of industry” interested in the West’s amenities. 

“I think everyone’s entitled to their place in the sun, no matter how big or small it is,” he said, adding that he prefers that owners of those large tracts maintain “reasonable” access to federal and state land that borders their property rather than using their purchases to lock up public parcels. 

“[I’ve had] the opportunity to see wolves and wolverines and bobcats and lions — the whole shootin’ match. I love it. I’ve just been fortunate to live in a time where that was always available to me. I have a lot of empathy for people who haven’t had a lot of opportunity to see that over the years,” Hansen said. 

Asked to consider how his study intersects with Montana’s history and future, Metcalf said he’s struck by how much the legacy of the U.S. government’s approach to land management in the West continues to reverberate.

“[Montana has] a history of federal land transfer that created really large landowners on the private side of the ledger. This shows us how far we’ve come from that,” he said. “Not that far.”

A select number of landowners control a growing percentage of Montana’s private land, according to a study recently published by the journal Environmental Management.

Lead study author Alexander Metcalf told Montana Free Press in a recent conversation that approximately 4,000 landowners in the state control two-thirds of its private land. Metcalf, a social scientist with a keen interest in natural resource management, said consolidated land ownership can give a single property owner the ability to improve or degrade wildlife habitat in “one fell swoop.” Metcalf’s research also has implications for open space and recreational access initiatives in a state that prides itself on its expansive vistas and outdoor heritage.

Working alongside another University of Montana researcher and a University of St. Thomas data scientist, Metcalf used a state-run database to analyze 20 years of property ownership records, ending in 2023. The research team then used AI to sort the records by parcel size and ownership type. 

Late last month, Environmental Management published the researchers’ findings, which are based on an analysis of the approximately 370,000 distinct individuals and entities with landholdings in Montana. The state database that houses that information is called Montana Cadastral.

Metcalf said his findings demonstrate that a “small minority” of landowners have an outsized impact on Montana’s wildlife. Wildlife is considered a “public trust” resource that the state is expected to manage for the benefit of the common good, a centuries-old legal framework that surfaces in conversations about Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ management of elk, in litigation over wolf trapping and hunting, and in streamflow-preservation efforts designed to support fisheries.

Metcalf works for UM’s Human Dimensions Lab, which studies human interactions with the environment. He said he wasn’t surprised by which individuals and corporations topped the list, but he was taken aback by how “extraordinarily large” the most expansive properties are. 

“The graph never stops getting steeper,” Metcalf said. “Thirteen owners own 15% of the private land in the state.”

Landowners in that top-tier category include Ted Turner, the retired broadcast executive who manages his vast North American holdings with an eye toward conservation, and the politically powerful Galt family, which has deep ties to ranching and a burgeoning interest in residential development. Farris and Dan Wilks, who amassed a fortune in the oil and gas industry and use their central Montana holdings as hunting grounds, also emerged toward the top of the heap.

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From a conservation perspective, the intense concentration of land ownership in Montana comes with risks and benefits, Metcalf said.

“There are lots of big bites to be had at the apple. This is not a collective action problem with 370,000 participants. The vast majority of land is owned by a handful of thousands, which is a really different ballgame,” he said. “The decisions those landowners make could have really negative consequences for wildlife in one fell swoop, but they could also have really good consequences for wildlife.” 

In a recent conversation with MTFP, Hillary Rosner, an environmental journalist who studied the threats wildlife face for her recently published book “Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World,” underscored wild animals’ reliance on private land.

“Eighty percent of wildlife in the United States live some portion of their life or access resources that they need on private land,” she said. “When you have these huge tracts of private land, it can be great for wildlife.” 

Rosner described several ways conservation-oriented landowners can support wildlife: they can modify or remove fences to make it easier for animals to move and migrate, rehabilitate degraded rangeland to improve forage, or put their property into a conservation easement to restrict habitat-fragmenting residential or commercial development. 

Rosner’s work also demonstrates how “a lack of oversight and a lack of accountability” on private land can compromise ecological webs by, for example, paving them over with asphalt or consuming the water plants and animals need to thrive. 

“The decision one landowner makes can have this incredibly monumental impact, for better or worse, for these private lands,” she said. 

Metcalf’s research also examined what’s happening at the other end of the graph. Parcelization, or the subdivision of formerly intact chunks of land into multiple smaller lots, is also on the rise in Montana. 

Twenty years ago, 100,000 individuals owned land in Montana. That figure has since ballooned to more than 160,000 individuals, according to the study. The development of formerly open land can chop up an animal’s habitat and diminish its food supplies, decrease and pollute critical water sources, and increase the likelihood of a fatal run-in with a vehicle.

Kelly Pohl with Headwaters Economics, a Bozeman-based think tank specializing in planning and land-use issues, described Metcalf’s research as establishing a “really interesting finding” that raises questions about the cost of providing fire and public safety service to rural lots and building out water, sewer and transportation infrastructure. She said it also brings to mind Montana’s multi-billion-dollar outdoor recreation economy, which thrives on open vistas, healthy wildlife populations and recreational access to wild and working landscapes.

Metcalf’s research builds on Headwaters’ analysis of property assessment records administered by the Montana Department of Revenue. Headwaters found that between 2000 and 2021, about 1 million acres of land — an area nearly equal to Glacier National Park — was converted to housing.

“As more people want to live here, we’re going to see more pressure on these important spaces,” said Pohl, Headwaters’ associate director. “There’s this tension between this mythology of what we want Montana to look like and feel like, and the reality that it might make more sense for people to live in towns, where services are going to be more affordable and housing is going to be more affordable.

“As startling as some of the statistics are, it’s also not too late for us to take initiative and be forward-looking and prioritize these values that make Montana such a special place to live,” she added.

Parcelization can also hinder recreational access, according to Public Land Water Access Association’s executive director, Alex Leone. It becomes harder to gain entry to hunting or hiking spots or a fishing hole as the number of owners increases, he said, adding that his organization’s members have seen a rise in absentee landowners drawn to amenity-rich areas of Montana.

“We have several cases right now that involve subdivisions where roads are kind of a problem: Is the road public, is it not? Is there an HOA, is there not? That complicates stuff, too, for access — the more you subdivide stuff, it’s going to … make the public access model more difficult,” Leone said. “It’s a challenge for being able to knock on a door and talk to someone. There’s a ton more doors to knock on.”

Other aspects of Metcalf’s research examined the types of structures —  partnerships, corporations, trusts, estates, etc., — landowners use to control land and documented a rise in nonresident landowners in Montana. Over the past two decades, there has been a 4 percentage point increase in the number of property tax bills sent to out-of-state mailing addresses, a proxy Metcalf used to indicate residency. That figure in 2023 was 17%, up from 13% in 2004. 

Metcalf said those figures are likely undercounted, given that you can own a limited liability company, or LLC, with a Montana tax address, regardless of where you live in the country. 

He said he was surprised to see a marked increase in the number of acres controlled by LLCs. In 2004, 3% of the private land in Montana was controlled by an LLC. Now that figure is 16%. Approximately 9 million acres of private land in Montana are part of an LLC, according to the study, which highlighted the potential for LLCs to hinder transparency and make it harder for neighbors and members of the public to interact with a person.

“Although legal accountability does not vary across ownership type, owners whose names are publicly known are more accessible to [public trust] beneficiaries and accountable for their wildlife management actions via informal governance mechanisms, like social norms,” the study reads. “Although there are opportunities to bolster the wildlife public trust when private landowner and public interests align, accountability of private landowners to public beneficiaries is low and seems to be decreasing in Montana.”

Max Hansen, an attorney who has helped landowners and business owners navigate real estate transactions for more than 30 years, pushed back on the notion that LLCs are designed to obfuscate ownership. Instead, he described them as a liability-shielding structure that has become easier to implement and is “just good business.”

Hansen added in an interview with MTFP on Tuesday that he’s seen a lot of cycles in the real estate industry in the 50 years since he started practicing law in Montana, including a surge in buyers coming from the coasts to insulate themselves from the pandemic and its side effects. Even now, amid a softening real estate market, Hansen said Montana still has a distinct appeal for “captains of industry” interested in the West’s amenities. 

“I think everyone’s entitled to their place in the sun, no matter how big or small it is,” he said, adding that he prefers that owners of those large tracts maintain “reasonable” access to federal and state land that borders their property rather than using their purchases to lock up public parcels. 

“[I’ve had] the opportunity to see wolves and wolverines and bobcats and lions — the whole shootin’ match. I love it. I’ve just been fortunate to live in a time where that was always available to me. I have a lot of empathy for people who haven’t had a lot of opportunity to see that over the years,” Hansen said. 

Asked to consider how his study intersects with Montana’s history and future, Metcalf said he’s struck by how much the legacy of the U.S. government’s approach to land management in the West continues to reverberate.

“[Montana has] a history of federal land transfer that created really large landowners on the private side of the ledger. This shows us how far we’ve come from that,” he said. “Not that far.”