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Timberland

2019 Timberland Deal of the Year


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PUBLIC POLICY | Preserving public access to the 630,000-acre timber tract drew scrutiny from key elected officials including the speaker of the Montana House and the president of the Montana Senate.

Written by: Kelly McGee
It was only fitting that the largest timberland sale of 2019 involved the publicly traded company that owns the most land in the US. Weyerhaeuser, the Seattle-based timber REIT, ended the year decisively by announcing the sale of 630,000 acres of Montana timberland. The buyer was Georgia-based Southern Pine Plantations (SPP), a real estate holding company owned by the Griffith family, which has been featured in the Land Report 100 as recently as 2013. The price of $145 million works out to approximately $230 per acre.
In addition to the many moving parts that color a major transaction, there was a public policy element that emerged when the sale was first announced in December. The main concern was the willingness of SPP to assure Montanans that it would maintain public access to the vast timberlands for traditional recreational activities such as hunting and fishing. As soon as the deal went public, key state officials voiced their concerns to the company about continuing to allow the public access to the massive landholding.
In an email to the Great Falls Tribune, SPP legal counsel James Bowditch addressed these concerns by detailing SPP’s commitment to allow public access via Montana’s block management program, which facilitates use of private property that is then monitored by state game wardens.
“… SPP has no plan to change the long-standing practices of the prior owners related to public access, forest management, grazing, existing outfitting agreements and conservation easements, and other programs,” wrote Bowditch.
SPP president Pat Patton told The Land Report that his company was responsive to the public’s concern. He also emphasized the company’s intent to explore the possibility of additional conservation easements, which would assure public access to the timberland in the future. (Currently, 110,000 of the 630,000 acres are under an existing easement.) Patton indicated that the benefits of additional conservation easements were some of the key drivers associated with the acquisition. Clearly, the value of the merchantable timber was another.
In a statement released after the deal closed, Weyerhaeuser CEO Devin Stockfish said, “The sale of our Montana timberlands is part of our ongoing effort to strategically optimize our timberland portfolio.”
Portfolio optimization went well beyond this single sale, however. The REIT also sold 555,000 acres in Michigan to Lyme Timber Company in 2019. All told, it deaccessioned more than 1 million acres of timberland in the US last year, leaving it with more than 11 million acres of owned or managed timberland.

Land Report 2019 Timberland Deal of the Year: Montana Timberlands

Seller: Weyerhaeuser Company
Buyer: Southern Pine Plantations

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The Land Report Fall 2013

With 2.2 million acres, John Malone takes top honors for the third consecutive year. His love of land, coupled with his wife’s love of horses, led to several key acquisitions, including a historic Irish castle just south of Dublin and two properties in Wellington, the epicenter of Florida’s equestrian community.
At more than 2 million acres, Ted Turner runs a close second to his good friend. Turner enjoys the distinction of being New Mexico’s largest landowner, and he capitalized on that honor by acquiring the historic Sierra Grande Lodge and Spa in Truth or Consequences. Guests at the Lodge will be able to enjoy tours of Turner’s 156,439-acre Ladder Ranch and his 362,885-acre Armendaris Ranch.
Thanks to his acquisition of the Broken O Ranch, Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke moved up from No. 10 on last year’s list to No. 8 in the rankings. Among the newcomers to this year’s list are Texas’s Wilks Brothers, founders of Frac Tech. Their prized jewel is Montana’s 60,000-acre N Bar Ranch, which they acquired from former Land Report 100er Tom Siebel, founder of Siebel Systems. Another new name on the list is Arthur Nicholas, who serves on the board of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Nicholas is the owner of Wyoming’s historic Wagonhound Land and Livestock Co., which is the subject of a new book by Land Reporters Wyman Meinzer and Henry Chappell.
We invite you to be among the first to view the complete rundown of America’s top landowners, which is available exclusively on the Fay Ranches website. Click here to download your PDF today.

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