Land Report 100
View Top 100 Landowners
Land Report 100
Land Report 100 is an annual ranking of America’s leading landowners.
View Top 100 Landowners
Land Report 100 is an annual ranking of America’s leading landowners.
View Top 100 Landowners
Land Report 100
Who is America’s Largest Landowner?
Land Report 100
Who is America’s Largest Landowner?
This question is the quest of the Land Report 100 Research Team all year long.
In 2024, America’s largest landowner is Red Emmerson. Red and his family own 2,411,000 acres in California, Oregon, and Washington through their timber-products company, Sierra Pacific Industries. The Emmersons became America’s largest landowners in 2021 when they acquired 175,000 acres in Oregon from Seneca Timber Company. With that acquisition, the Emmersons surpassed Liberty Media chairman John Malone’s 2,200,000 acres. CNN founder Ted Turner is America’s third largest landowner with 2 million acres in the Southeast, on the Great Plains, and across the West.
The Land Report 100 Research Team analyzes transactions and scours records to determine America’s leading landowners. That’s how we broke the news in 2020 that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was America’s largest farmland owner with more than 260,000 acres. That’s how we identified Shanda Investment Group founder Tianqiao Chen as the owner of almost 200,000 acres of Oregon timberland in 2024. It’s one of the many reasons why news organizations worldwide rely on the Magazine of the American Landowner to understand this asset class.
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Since day one, the Land Report 100 has been recognized as the gold standard. The Wall Street Journal profiled our premiere survey, which ran in April 2007. The Washington Post did a deep dive on the enormous growth of the Land Report 100. No one has done a better job of illuminating the extent and reach of the Land Report 100 than Bloomberg , which crafted a remarkable interpretation of our painstaking research.
Invariably, I am asked about our sources. They range from county tax records to financial reports and corporate press releases. As the Voice of the American Landowner, we enjoy one final advantage — the trust and confidence of America’s leading landowners themselves. Whenever possible, we verify the figures cited in the Land Report 100 with landowners, their designated representatives, or their trusted advisors.
— Eric O’Keefe,
Editor, The Land Report
This question is the quest of the Land Report 100 Research Team all year long.
In 2024, America’s largest landowner is Red Emmerson. Red and his family own 2,411,000 acres in California, Oregon, and Washington through their timber-products company, Sierra Pacific Industries. The Emmersons became America’s largest landowners in 2021 when they acquired 175,000 acres in Oregon from Seneca Timber Company. With that acquisition, the Emmersons surpassed Liberty Media chairman John Malone’s 2,200,000 acres. CNN founder Ted Turner is America’s third largest landowner with 2 million acres in the Southeast, on the Great Plains, and across the West.
The Land Report 100 Research Team analyzes transactions and scours records to determine America’s leading landowners. That’s how we broke the news in 2020 that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was America’s largest farmland owner with more than 260,000 acres. That’s how we identified Shanda Investment Group founder Tianqiao Chen as the owner of almost 200,000 acres of Oregon timberland in 2024. It’s one of the many reasons why news organizations worldwide rely on the Magazine of the American Landowner to understand this asset class.
Continue Reading
Since day one, the Land Report 100 has been recognized as the gold standard. The Wall Street Journal profiled our premiere survey, which ran in April 2007. The Washington Post did a deep dive on the enormous growth of the Land Report 100. No one has done a better job of illuminating the extent and reach of the Land Report 100 than Bloomberg , which crafted a remarkable interpretation of our painstaking research.
Invariably, I am asked about our sources. They range from county tax records to financial reports and corporate press releases. As the Voice of the American Landowner, we enjoy one final advantage — the trust and confidence of America’s leading landowners themselves. Whenever possible, we verify the figures cited in the Land Report 100 with landowners, their designated representatives, or their trusted advisors.
— Eric O’Keefe,
Editor, The Land Report
Land Report 100
Top 100 Landowners
| wdt_ID | Ranking | Image | Name | Total Acres | Changes in Acreage | Profile | Notes | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |  | Emmerson Family | 2,411,000 | https://landreport.com/land-report-100/emmerson-family | The Emmerson family owns and sustainably manages more than 2.4 million acres of West Coast timberland. Through their forest-products company, SIERRA PACIFIC INDUSTRIES (SPI), they are among the largest US producers of lumber, millwork, windows, and renewable energy. SPI prioritizes the creation of quality wood products, rural job opportunities, wildfire-resilient forests, wildlife habitat, and recreational spaces. The Sierra Pacific Foundation has provided more than $6 million in scholarships to children of SPI crew members, including $521,000 in 2023. Earlier this year, the foundation pledged $1.1 million to rebuild a Northern California youth camp, ensuring future generations of children will enjoy outdoor educational experiences. | ||
| 2 | 2 |  | John Malone | 2,200,000 | https://landreport.com/land-report-100/john-malone | One of the enduring commitments of THE MALONE FAMILY LAND PRESERVATION FOUNDATION is the Perennial Agriculture Project, a joint project between the Foundation and The Land Institute. Since its founding in 1976, The Land Institute has been dedicated to science-based research and developing food-production methods that sustain the land and the soil. The Perennial Agriculture Project, led by a team of plant breeders and ecologists in multiple partnerships worldwide, is a paradigm shift that focuses on developing perennial grains, pulses, and oilseed-bearing plants to be grown in ecologically intensified, diverse crop mixtures known as perennial polycultures. Such a production system mimics the benefits found in native and natural ecosystems. | ||
| 3 | 3 |  | Ted Turner | 2,000,000 | https://landreport.com/land-report-100/ted-turner | Travel + Leisure magazine readers voted Vermejo the World’s Best Resort Hotel in the West in 2023. Like its pioneering owner, Vermejo has led the way in regenerative tourism. “Nothing is small in Ted’s world,” says Jade McBride, president of Ted Turner Reserves, who oversees a network of luxury New Mexico hospitality properties, which include 1.1 million acres across the Land of Enchantment. Vermejo G.M. Theresa King is undeniably partial. “One of the things that sets us apart is we’re always thinking about the environment every bit as much as we’re thinking about the guest experience,” King says. “While they’re with us, we want to educate our guests without making them feel like they’ve come to school. Everyone walks away feeling they know more about the land and the planet.” | ||
| 4 | 4 |  | Stan Kroenke | 1,700,000 | ↑72,500 | https://landreport.com/land-report-100/stan-kroenke | Kroenke Ranches is taking bold new steps on Texas’s WAGGONER RANCH by adopting a holistic approach to the ecological management of the historic 560,000-acre ranch’s significant wildlife resources. The primary land-management techniques currently being employed by the Wildlife Division are targeted specifically at quail and white-tailed deer habitats. Since Stan Kroenke purchased the Waggoner Ranch in February 2016, brush management has been performed on more than 150,000 acres of the 875-square-mile landholding. This comprehensive management philosophy has served to promote populations of native grasses and forbs and to enhance habitat diversity on the largest single ranch under one fence in the Lone Star State. | |
| 5 | 5 |  | Reed Family | 1,661,000 | https://landreport.com/land-report-100/the-reed-family | For more than 130 years, this sixth-generation, family-owned forest-products-company has grown and nurtured its landholdings in the West and, more recently, the Southeast. GREEN DIAMOND RESOURCE COMPANY was founded in 1890 as Simpson Logging Company by Sol Simpson. The lumberman was a tireless innovator whose many advances included the introduction of mechanized log-hauling machines. In addition to its deeded ownership, Green Diamond Management Company has an undisclosed interest in Twin Creeks Timber LLC, a 609,000-acre joint venture with Silver Creek Capital Management. All of the joint venture’s working forests in the West and the Southeast are certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) standards. | ||
| 6 | 6 |  | Irving Family | 1,267,792 | https://landreport.com/land-report-100/irving-family | The family’s J.D. IRVING COMPANY celebrated a major milestone in 2022: its 140th anniversary. That’s how long it’s been since James Dergavel “J.D.” Irving (1860–1933) left his native Scotland for New Brunswick, Canada. The enterprising Scot founded a timber enterprise that eventually included a sawmill, a gristmill, and a carding mill, along with several farms. J.D.’s son, K.C., acquired substantial landholdings in New Brunswick, as well as in neighboring Maine. The Irvings currently rank as the Pine Tree State’s largest private landowners. Equally impressive is their legacy of forest stewardship. Irving Woodlands has planted more than 1 billion trees in Canada and the US, and all of the company’s Maine woodlands are certified under the Forest Stewardship Council program. | ||
| 7 | 7 |  | Buck Family | 1,236,000 | https://landreport.com/land-report-100/buck-family | A native of South Portland, Maine, PETER BUCK (1930—2021) studied at Bowdoin College before earning advanced degrees in physics at Columbia University. While employed at GE, Buck made the fateful decision to loan Fred DeLuca, the son of a family friend, $1,000 to launch Pete’s Super Submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Buck also tendered a suggestion to his new partner: Study the culinary creations of Amato’s, a popular Italian sandwich shop at the corner of India and Newbury Streets near where Buck grew up. His advice and his investment helped to create Subway. Decades later, when the sandwich shop became a global powerhouse, Buck returned to his roots and invested a portion of his profits in Maine timberland, which now belongs to his heirs. | ||
| 8 | 8 |  | Singleton Family | 1,100,000 | https://landreport.com/land-report-100/singleton-family | The descendants of HENRY SINGLETON (1916—1999) oversee Singleton Ranches, which the co-founder of Teledyne Inc. launched in 1986. That was the year the electrical engineer purchased the 81,000-acre San Cristobal Ranch (above) in New Mexico’s historic Galisteo Basin. Singleton subsequently expanded his landholdings by acquiring numerous Spanish land grants, primarily in New Mexico but also in California. The many honors that have been earned and bestowed upon Singleton Ranches include being recognized by the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) with its prestigious Best Remuda Award in 2012. Singleton stallions work all aspects of the cattle operation and are bred to ranch mares during the breeding season. | ||
| 9 | 9 |  | Brad Kelley | 1,000,000 | https://landreport.com/land-report-100/brad-kelley | The Kentucky native currently has New Mexico’s DAWSON ELK VALLEY RANCH listed with Jeff Hubbard of Mirr Ranch Group for $96 million. According to biologists’ estimates, 10,000 elk roam the rugged slopes and river bottoms on Kelley’s ranch and Ted Turner’s neighboring Vermejo. Together, the two comprise much of New Mexico’s coveted Game Management Unit 55A. In addition to this 50,039-acre New Mexico listing, Kelley has 600,000-plus acres in Far West Texas listed with King Land & Water for more than $400 million. This unparalleled assemblage includes 430,305-acre BREWSTER RANCH ($299 million), 113,650-acre Y-6 RANCH ($80 million), and the 77,261-acre EAGLE MOUNTAIN and CARRIZO MOUNTAIN RANCHES ($56 million). | ||
| 10 | 10 |  | King Ranch Heirs | 911,215 | https://landreport.com/land-report-100/king-ranch-heirs | King Ranch has long been known as an innovator. In 1940, the USDA recognized the ranch’s Santa Gertrudis as the first beef breed to be developed in the US. This legacy of innovation continues to this day. In August 2023, the Department of Energy announced that the Birthplace of American Ranching was selected as the site of its SOUTH TEXAS DIRECT AIR CAPTURE HUB. The Energy Department selected 1PointFive, a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental, to receive a grant to develop the hub on King Ranch. Direct air capture is a process that separates CO2 from the air and thus helps to reduce legacy CO2 in the atmosphere. Such a process is in keeping with the tradition of land stewardship on King Ranch that dates back 170 years to Captain King himself. | ||
| Ranking | Image | Name | Total Acres | Changes in Acreage | Profile | Notes |
