Farris Wilks talks land swap, oil, cattle and Montana

Farris Wilks, Montana’s largest landowner, talked about a proposed land swap he’d like to make with the federal Bureau of Land Management, oil exploration, rumors about plans he has for his growing land holdings in the state, cattle ranching and what he appreciates about Big Sky Country in an interview this week.

“They claim I’m worth $1.4,” said Wilks, referring to media reports, when asked about his wealth.

That’s $1.4 billion.

“Somewhere in that neighborhood,” said Wilks on whether the figure was accurate. “My brother, about the same.”

Wilks and his brother, Dan, live in Texas but spend about four months of the year in Montana, and both are building new homes at the NBar Ranch at Grass Range in Fergus County so they can spend more time in the state, Farris Wilks said.

The typically publicity-shy Wilks agreed to an interview mainly to explain his position on a land exchange he’s proposing with the BLM, which has been controversial.

He also discussed other issues after arriving in Great Falls in a Cessna X business jet.

Wilks and his brother, Dan, are proposing, on a preliminary basis, to give 5,200 acres to the Bureau of Land Management in the proposed land exchange.

In return, they would receive 4,900 acres of BLM land.

“What I’d like to do is block up the main part of our ranch,” Wilks said.

The BLM land, he said, “is right in the middle of it,” and blocking up isolated holdings of public land within the private property would make it easier to manage, he said. The exchange, he said, also would increase access to currently inaccessible public land, making the exchange fair to the public as well.

The BLM has yet to agree to consider the deal.

The Wilks brothers sold the hydraulic fracturing services business Frac Tech for $3.2 billion in 2011.

Today, they own a business that provides heavy equipment financing, and lots of cattle.

“First and foremost we’re cattle ranchers,” Wilks said.

Besides Montana, the brothers own ranches in Texas, Idaho and Oregon.

“It’s a good enterprise to be in right now,” Wilks said of the cattle business.

Wilks said he and his brother are trying to bring the 62,000-acre NBar cattle ranch “back to the powerhouse is once was.” It’s a 5,000-head cow-calf operation.

“That’s why we’ve continued to add land to it,” he said.

Complaints about out-of-staters buying large ranches and cutting off hunting access to the public is a continual concern in the state.

Wilks said he has no plans to lease land for trophy hunting. Outfitters have approached them about leasing land for hunting trips, but the brothers aren’t interested, he said.

“The only guided hunting we do is for the youth of our community,” said Wilks, referring an annual event at the NBar in which about 50 kids are allowed to hunt.

As part of the land exchange, Wilks says he is proposing to open 14,500 acres of private land at the NBar to managed public hunting.

The brothers have purchased about 300,000 acres of land in Montana, he said.

That makes them the 22nd largest landowner in the nation, according to The Land Report magazine, which compiles a list of the top landowners in the national annually, and No. 1 in Montana.

“It’s a wonderful place to live,” he said of Montana. “As they say, it’s one of the true last great places in the Lower 48.”

BLM scrapped a previous land exchange proposed by the Wilks in May 2014 after members of a group called Central Montana Hunters personally delivered a petition signed by 1,600 residents who opposed it to BLM State Director Jamie Connell.

The hunters objected because it involved the BLM giving up the 2,700-acre Durfee Hills area within the NBar Ranch in southern Fergus County. The area, known for its elk, is accessible by hunters only via aircraft.

“Initially, I’ve been surprised,” Wilks said of his response to the opposition. “Mostly, it’s the hunters. They seem to have the most reaction.”

Other groups have responded favorably to a land exchange, he said, but their voices haven’t been given as much consideration, Wilks said.

In the new proposal, 5,200 acres of the Wilks land would be transferred to the BLM.

Of that property, about 3,400 acres is inside the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument and 640 acres is adjacent to it. The Bullwhacker Road, which is part of the land, would provide permanent access to more than 50,000 acres of public land within the monument that is currently inaccessible by vehicle.

The BLM is currently studying alignment options for a new road into the monument. The Wilks brothers are asking the BLM to add the land exchange to the list of options. With the land exchange, the BLM wouldn’t have to build a costly new road to restore access in the Bullwhacker area of the monument, the Wilks say.

“We’re just asking, ‘Can we be part of that as a proposed option?’” Wilks said. “If it’s not a viable option, so be it.”

Wilks also is proposing to give the BLM 1,200 acres of private parcels on the west side of Red Hill Road in Fergus County at the NBar providing more access to Lewis and Clark National Forest and the Big Snowy Mountains to the west.

In exchange, the Wilks brothers are asking for 4,900 acres of isolated federal inholdings at the NBar Ranch, including the Durfee Hills property prized by elk hunters.

“I feel like we’ve overcompensated for whatever hunting they might lose in the Durfee Hills,” Wilks said.

The BLM’s Central Montana Resource Advisory Council voted in July to endorse the concept of a land exchange, but not specifically the Wilks brother proposal, as one of the options in the BLM’s study of new road access in the Bullwhacker area. The BLM has made no decisions whether to add the land exchange option.

Wilks dismissed the suggestion that the brothers are buying land in Montana to explore for oil, saying it’s cheaper to lease oil rights than buying land.

“If that was my intent, I’d just lease the ground and go out and do the exploration without buying that land,” he said.

But the Wilks brothers are conducting exploratory drilling for oil on 200,000 acres of leased private lands in Bakken oil patch in eastern Montana, despite an oversupply of crude and falling prices.

“Long-term, it’s great,” Wilks said of future of oil production. “Short-term, it’s ugly.”