Private Ownership of Public Trust Wildlife Habitat in Montana, U.S.A. (2004–2023)

Habitat ownership in the U.S. is primarily private, complicating management of public trust wildlife. Under this configuration, the rights and interests of private landowners can be at odds with those of trust beneficiaries. Recent wildlife scholarship has incorporated private landownership into analyses, but limited data accessibility and analysis tools have precluded landscape-wide assessments of landownership patterns and trends. Here, we present novel methods for analyzing cadastral data and the resulting assessment of private landownership characteristics in the large U.S. state of Montana from 2004 to 2023. Results showed 63% of private land/habitat in the state is owned by 3500 landowners who each control at least 3600 acres; a growing majority of landowners are legal entities (e.g., LLCs), rather than individuals or families; and substantial parcelization has occurred. We discuss implications of these trends, including advantages for wildlife, benefits to landowners, and complications for public trust wildlife management.