November 27 decision in Weyerhaeuser v. US Fish and Wildlife requires that habitat be present for Critical Habitat Designation. The case concerns about 1,500 acres in Louisiana that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated as a critical habitat for…
Farmland values in the Tenth District dropped an average of 3 percent, according to the Kansas City Fed’s Ag Credit Survey. Blame it on decreased farm income, which fell for the fifth consecutive year. –The Editors The Kansas City Fed…
Our Investing Issue takes center stage in our November newsletter, which also includes Election Night results affecting landowners as well as major transactions: Colorado voters give a thumbs down to more extensive drilling setbacks. Voters in Park City, Utah, green-light…
A decade-long legal battle by Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla over private property rights versus public coastal access ended this month when the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, reports the Los Angeles Times. Central to the dispute: a…
The Supreme Court heard arguments about whether or not private property can be designated critical habitat for an endangered species that doesn’t live there. In 2012, US Fish and Wildlife labeled 1,500 acres of Louisiana forestland as critical habitat for…
Tom Brokaw’s West Boulder Ranch and the Old Steen Place, an adjacent portion of the Burnt Leather Ranch, were sold to a single buyer by Fay Ranches on September 28. The combination of the two Montana holdings creates a 4,751-acre…
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia filed a civil suit against a Mason County hemp farm. Although state laws allow the cultivation, sale, and purchase of industrial hemp, the suit alleges the…
Not all public lands are created equal. That is especially the case out West where almost half the land – 47 percent – is owned by Uncle Sam. Text by Ken Mirr Four or five years ago, I listed a…
The potential sale of more than 1,600 acres of federal land located within the previous boundaries of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was announced in mid-August and then quickly canceled. “The secretary did not see the proposal before it went…
A host of Western cities are courting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in the hopes of attracting the new BLM headquarters. The move is part of Secretary Zinke’s plan to relocate the agency closer to the bulk of the lands it…
