The Below Letter to the Editor Describes Abuse of Power Against Montana Land Owner
Dear Editor:
Years ago, before most in this area understood who American Prairie Reserve (APR) was or what their nefarious goals were, APR was able to obtain a "Right of First Refusal" on a family ranch in southern Phillips County. Ranchers were suffering from low prices and drought and many were losing everything, and APR took advantage of that hardship. A Right of First Refusal (ROFR) gives the holder a right to match any legitimate offer should the owners decide to sell. However, this was no run of the mill ROFR. In an unusually calculated move, it seems APR added a term that would force the ranch into a sale upon the death of the owner's children. It could not be passed on to the next generation, which all but assured that APR would own the ranch in a matter of years.
However, it's important to note that as a 501(c)3 charitable non-profit, APR is prohibited from paying more than the fair market value for a land acquisition. Paying in excess of fair market value can threaten a non-profit's charitable status.
Fast-forward to 2024, APR's goals are well known and the remaining son makes the difficult decision to sell the ranch that will be forced into sale anyway upon his death. The asking price was set above the appraised value; we're told an attempt by the owners to defeat an APR purchase and keep the ranch in agriculture. They worked with an aspiring young ranch family who made an offer above the asking price. On that information it would appear the ranch family would have surely secured the purchase by paying significantly more than appraised value. But that's not what happened. It appears that APR decided they could use the ranch family's offer to determine a "new" fair market value for the ranch, and then exercised the opportunistic ROFR they held to match it. Today they are boasting of their purchase in press releases.
The non-profit APR, who repeatedly denies competing with local ranchers for land, did just that. APR coldly outmaneuvered a young ranch family trying to branch out on their own and continue a multi-generation vocation of raising high quality protein for a hungry world. This local family is raising the next generation of cattle producers, would have been a valued neighbor, and would have continued to pay income tax on the ranch profits. APR pays no income tax, and successfully moved another productive cattle ranch into the tax-exempt category that we all pay to subsidize.
APR has shown they will take any advantage they can to displace generations of ranch families in their pursuit of a 3.5 million acre playground. As they march on buying up productive agricultural land with their millions of dollars of tax exempt donations, local communities, counties, the State of Montana, and indeed the entire country will pay the price for their self-serving ideology of creating "the American Serengeti." It's high time the non-profit status of American Prairie Reserve is seriously scrutinized.
Deanna Robbins and Laura Boyce
Fergus County Ranchers, Save the Cowboy STOP American Prairie Reserve
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