3 ms·

> most ranches Those billionaires own ranches, for sure. Maybe even a lot of ranch land by area? But most ranches? Seems unlikely to me.

• s1artibartfast 3y ago
  Yeah, this seems like a really bold claim. Land may be often held by the rich on a per acre basis, but landowners are not rich on a per capita basis. People often confuse the two even tho it is exactly what you would expect from a pareto distribution
• COGlory 3y ago
  This is true. While billionaires are the largest landowners (well, actually Farmland Reserve/Mormon church probably is) and a lot of their land is old ranches they bought up, there's 2+ million cattle in Montana, 1+ million in Wyoming, I think almost 3 million in Colorado. There are many, many ranches in all those states. There are certainly far less than there used to be, but there are still very many functional ranches. That said, another reason the ranchers don't like wolves is because they get landowner elk tags that they can then turn around and sell private hunts with for 10s of thousands of dollars. Wolves have cut into their ability to find prize elk in recent years (as well as some harsh winters, which have probably don't more damage, but the perception is there for wolves).