Top 10 Largest Private Landholdings

#1: John Malone’s Holdings, USA (2,222,000 acres)

Media tycoon John C. Malone tops the list with approximately 2,222,000 acres spanning Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. His holdings began in the 1970s with timberland acquisitions in Maine under Great Northern Paper Company. Today, the Malone portfolio includes working forests managed for sustainable harvest, high-altitude ranches running Black Angus cattle on Colorado’s Western Slope, and expansive New Mexico ranchlands where elk and pronghorn roam.

Malone’s land ethic blends conservation and commerce. In Maine, he pioneered environmental certification for forest products, ensuring replanting and wildlife habitat corridors. On his Colorado ranches, ancillary income derives from trophy-hunting leases for elk and mule deer, with proceeds funding habitat restoration. South of Santa Fe, his New Mexico grasslands rest upon ancient Pueblo sites; Malone partners with tribal archaeologists to protect rock-art shelters and ancestral burials from erosion.

A little-known anecdote involves Malone’s privately operated wildfire-detection network in the American West: infrared cameras on remote peaks feed live video to a control center in Cheyenne, enabling rapid firefighting responses that saved millions of board feet of timber. Malone’s blend of high-tech stewardship and historic land preservation exemplifies how 2.2 million acres can serve both profit and planet.

#2: Ted Turner’s Holdings, USA (2,000,000 acres)

Media pioneer Ted Turner follows closely with roughly 2,000,000 acres across Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Georgia. Turner’s ranch empire began in the 1970s with purchases in southwestern Montana’s Flint Creek Valley, where he raised bison alongside his famed Hereford operations. Today, the Turner Ranches LLC portfolio incorporates diverse ecosystems: from the grasslands of the Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico—once part of Maxwell Land Grant—to coastal timberlands and barrier-island preserves along Georgia’s Golden Isles.

Turner’s land legacy includes the reintroduction of apex predators and prairie restoration. In South Dakota’s Rosebud and Sand Creek Ranches, he funded predator-prey balance studies, tracking wolf-elk-bison dynamics across 200,000 acres. In New Mexico, Turner converted former cattle pastures into elk habitat, stitching together wildlife corridors that link the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the Colorado Plateau.

A hidden gem lies on his Georgia barrier islands, where Turner preserves maritime forests and amber-glass-windowed plant nurseries that propagate native live oaks and magnolias. In 2015, he donated more than 100,000 acres to create the Turner Endangered Species Fund, underscoring his commitment to using private land for public ecological benefit.

#3: Emmerson Family (Green Diamond), USA (1,620,000 acres)

California’s timber barons, the Emmerson family, control approximately 1,620,000 acres through Green Diamond Resource Company, rooted in a late-19th-century sawmill at Fort Bragg. Their holdings span redwood and Douglas fir forests from Mendocino County northward into Oregon and Washington. Sustainable forestry underpins their operations: Green Diamond was among the first private firms to pursue Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, ensuring habitat protection for threatened species like the marbled murrelet and northern spotted owl.

Beyond timber, Emmerson lands harbor hidden hydrological treasures: old-growth redwood groves conceal subterranean springs that feed salmon-bearing streams. In 2008, the family partnered with Salmon Nation to restore riparian zones, reintroducing western pond turtles and tidewater gobies. Emmerson’s in-house research division publishes annual wildlife and water-quality reports, a rarity among private timberland owners.

An anecdote recalls a 1972 sawmill fire at Fort Bragg that threatened adjacent old-growth stands; Emmerson crews constructed firebreaks by hand-felling logs—saving over 200 acres of 800-year-old redwoods. Their subsequent investment in aerial firefighting paved the way for modern air tanker protocols across western forests.

#4: Irving Family, Canada (1,200,000 acres)

New Brunswick’s Irving family commands some 1,200,000 acres of forest and farmland across Atlantic Canada through J.D. Irving Ltd. The empire traces to 19th-century shipbuilders who harvested white pine for masts. Today, Irving’s integrated operations include pulp and paper mills, shipyards, and New Brunswick and Maine timberlands managed under a multi-species forestry plan.

Irving lands host Atlantic salmon spawning rivers—rivers where family ecologists reintroduced salmon in the 1980s. Their salmon ladders at Mactaquac Dam earned international recognition. A little-known fact: Irving’s forestry school in Fredericton, established 1920, is among North America’s oldest, training generations of professional foresters.

In 2017, J.D. Irving launched a $60 million woodland caribou habitat program—the largest private land conservation pledge in Canadian history—collaborating with Indigenous Mi’gmaq communities on co-management agreements that blend traditional ecological knowledge with modern habitat science.

#5: Stan Kroenke (Kroenke Ranches), USA (1,400,000 acres)

Sports magnate Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams and Arsenal FC, holds about 1,400,000 acres across Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana under K Land Company. His Hat Six and Ladder ranch acquisitions in the Rockies add ecological and recreational dimensions to cattle production. The Ladder Ranch’s sandstone channel buttes, detailed with ancient petroglyphs, are now protected through a partnership with the Nature Conservancy.

Kroenke’s Colorado ranches feature kilometer-long conservation easements, preserving critical elk migration corridors. In 2012, he funded satellite-collar studies that revealed Rocky Mountain elk seasonal range shifts—data now used by state wildlife agencies. A surprising nugget: Kroenke lands include private airstrips used for wildlife surveys, one of which discovered a previously undocumented endangered swift fox denning site in northeastern Colorado.

#6: Reed Family, USA (680,000 acres)

Berkshire Hathaway director George Reeds holds about 680,000 acres in central California and Oregon, primarily as working timberlands. Reed’s holdings began in the 1910s with pocket-forests around San Francisco, expanding post-war into Sierra Nevada and Coast Range stands. Under Reed’s stewardship, limited-entry trophy hunts for black bears and wild turkeys help manage deer overpopulation, funded by sport-hunting fees reinvested in habitat enhancement.

A hidden benefit: Reed lands contain thermal hot springs—formerly commercial resorts in the early 20th century—now managed as eco-retreats for conservation donors and researchers studying geothermal ecosystems. Reed’s annual “Forest Science Forums” bring university faculty onto private lands to pilot climate-adaptive silviculture trials.

#7: Singleton Family, USA (580,000 acres)

Oilman and philanthropist Singleton built a West Texas land empire spanning some 580,000 acres across Brewster and Pecos Counties. His “Rancho Del Sol” holdings include desert grasslands and Chihuahuan Desert canyons. In the 1980s, Singleton introduced rotational water trough placement to manage grazing pressure—a system now standard in arid rangelands.

His lands conceal 19th-century Comanche hunting camps along Chinati Creek, now subjects of archaeological digs. Singleton’s Milford Wind Farm on public easements overlaps his private ranch boundary—generating clean energy that powers entire counties.

#8: Thompson Family, USA (560,000 acres)

Grocery magnate Ken Thompson’s family trust controls 560,000 acres across California’s Modoc Plateau. Known for cattle operations on sagebrush steppe, the Thompsons pioneered conservation grazing to maintain endangered greater sage-grouse habitats. In 2005, they donated a conservation easement to Ducks Unlimited, creating one of the largest privately protected wetland complexes in the West.

Among their hidden gems: a network of alkali-flat playas that host rare brine shrimp and migrating sandhill cranes—mapped by Thompson’s biologists using drone surveys since 2012.

#9: Emmerson Second Trust, USA (525,000 acres)

In addition to Green Diamond, an Emmerson family trust holds 525,000 acres in Washington and Oregon working as riparian buffer land. These parcels were purchased in the 1990s to protect watershed health around the Salmon River basin. Emmerson’s private “Salmon Safe” accreditation covers these lands, ensuring agricultural practices that support fish passage and water quality.

#10: Fanjul Brothers, USA (423,000 acres)

Florida’s Fanjul family, sugar magnates since the late 19th century, operate about 423,000 acres in Palm Beach and Hendry Counties. Cane fields adjoin restored Everglades marshes—part of the family’s $30 million philanthropy for Big Cypress and lake Okeechobee restoration. Their “Everglades Futures” fund finances water-quality monitoring, and their private canal locks manage sugarfield drainage to minimize nutrient runoff.

These ten private landholdings—spanning from John Malone’s 2.2 million acres to the Fanjul family’s 423,000 acres—demonstrate the scale and diversity of private stewardship worldwide. Steeped in historical land grants, pioneering conservation, and innovative land uses, they preserve critical habitats, support sustainable industries, and unlock hidden cultural and ecological treasures. As the largest private stewards of land, their enduring legacies remind us that with great acreage comes great responsibility—and opportunity—for positive environmental and social impact.