Sweet deal in Montana for timber land

We loved the statistic put forth by the Wilderness Society that half of U.S. timberlands have changed hands in the past decade. As an investment commodity subject to unique market conditions, it is interesting to look over aerial maps of the U.S. and see how much undeveloped land now in the hands of timber companies gets put into play.

Last week, a forestry expert in Seattle, Kim McDonald, penned a very interesting piece in Crosscut.com which she described the purchase of 500 square miles in northwestern Montana by conservation groups. The land was bought from Plum Creek, the largest and most diverse private land owner in the U.S.

In addition to the seismic shift in thinking this deal signals, McDonald addresses a Farm Bill funding mechanism that will allow the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land to issue Qualified Conservancy Bonds, for which a secondary buyer can receive a tax credit.

Anyone got $500 million to invest — tax credit included?

Sit Prettier @ Rising Tide

Global warming has got to start to impact the decisions people make about where they want to be — given they have a choice. We all learned from Katrina that some segments of the population will get walloped by changing climate and the effects it has on the land.

A friend of mine owns 11 acres on St. George Island, a quiet little spit on the Potomac and Chesapeake in southern Maryland. It is a wonderful parcel that fronts and backs two reedy creeks. Earlier in my life, I would have coveted that land. But not now. It’s a risky investment and, by the time I might be ready to really use the property, it may be gone.

In Paris yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a group of hundreds of scientists and representatives of 113 governments — told us what everyone except U.S. and Australian officials who did not sign the Kyoto Protocol knew. Sea levels will rise 7-23 inches and temperatures will rise 2-11.5 degrees Farenheit by the year 2100.

This has dramatic ramifications for low-lying coastal areas, particularly in the Chesapeake region, where insurance companies will no longer write new homeowners policies, and the Gulf Coast. A lifelong love of the beach can no longer outweigh the realities of impending weather-related disasters.

In other words: It will be fascinating to see the different choices people make about where they’re going to live. If Hurricane Katrina made refugees out of tens of thousands of Mississippi and Lousiana residents, there’s no question Americans’ will be influenced.

Prediction: Idaho, Montana & Wyoming look like safe(r) havens.

Total Freaking Eye Candy!

The power of land is that conjures up feelings beyond words. Writers can TRY and evoke what land SAYS and MEANS, but their striving to describe the setting and the feelings evoked almost always falls short.

So what’s the point? Here’s the point:

The PRETTIEST rural land and ranch listing site LandCrazed has EVER seen — bar none — belongs to Hall and Hall, out of Billings, Montana. What they have is ART.

Capital A-R-T.

‘NUFF SAID!

160 acres w/$155M shack

Moving to Montana soon. Gonna be a timber floss tycoon ..

Where is Frank Zappa when you NEED him? I mean, who could do this absurd bit of news one better than the man who told sang about moving to Montana to be dental floss tycoon?

Well, Tycoons-R-Us has a new toy property on its way to market. According to Forbes.com, the online site of Forbes magazine, timber and real estate baron Tim Blixseth …

“has just upped the ante in the price of the world’s most expensive home, planning to build and sell a home for $155 million.

The 53,000-square-foot stone and wood mansion will be built at the Yellowstone Club, a members-only, residential ski and golf resort near Bozeman, Montana developed by Blixseth.

That tops the $139 million asking price for Updown Court in Windlesham, England, which was listed No. 1 in the Forbes.com list of the world’s most expensive homes in 2006.

It also exceeds the $125 million that U.S. media mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump is asking for the renovated estate he owns in Palm Beach, Florida.

Blixseth, who ranks No. 322 in the 2006 Forbes 400 list with a $1.2 billion fortune, said he had already received interest in the home.

“Some of (the world’s richest) just have to have the best. Price is not an issue,” he told Forbes.com.

The 10-bedroom mansion will sit on 160 acres and will come with a private gondola-like chairlift that will carry residents to the Yellowstone Club’s private ski slopes, an indoor/outdoor swimming pool, and a home movie theater, and it is fully furnished.”

Forget the 10-bedroom mansion. We’ll take the 160 acres and call it day.