GET ME REWRITE Tone-deaf, self-serving billionaires buy up public lands in the West

Photo credit:  The American Prospect

Who Gets to Own the West?A new group of billionaires is shaking up the landscape.  (The New York Times, 6/22/2019)

In the last decade, private land in the United States has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few. Today, just 100 families own about 42 million acres across the country, a 65,000-square-mile expanse, according to the Land Report, a magazine that tracks large purchases. Researchers at the magazine have found that the amount of land owned by those 100 families has jumped 50 percent since 2007.

According to the Land Report, the Wilks brothers own just over 700,000 acres of western land.  The average lawn size, not just the front yard, is one-quarter of an acre.