Voidly · Foreign-Held U.S. Farmland
The Shell Map
The register shows a flag. This map shows the chain. For each major conduit-flagged or no-country block of foreign-held US land, the documented ownership path — node by node, from the dirt to a sovereign fund, a documented parent, or the exact point where the public record goes dark.
Every node is sourced; going dark is a finding. Chains follow government records, regulatory filings, and documented investigations only. A conduit structure is lawful and common; nothing here asserts wrongdoing a record does not assert. Where a chain ends at private individuals who are not public figures, it is marked and not detailed. No personal data.
- Chains mapped
- 38
- Current acres
- 3.8M
- End at a foreign state
- 5
- Go dark or never filed
- 17
- Stale ghost entries
- 7
A filled endpoint resolves to a named owner; a dashed open endpoint is where the public record stops. Line width scales with acreage. Faded routes are stale register ghosts. Inclusion means a structure is documented — it does not assert wrongdoing by anyone; labels marked “inferred” or “last documented” state exactly that.
Chains that end at a foreign state
5 · 868K acresChains with a documented private owner
9 · 828K acresChains that go dark
16 · 1.9M acresNever filed
1 · 197K acresStale register ghosts — divested or frozen entries, excluded from every total
7 · 467K acresOne route per chain; stations are the documented jurisdictions in order. Click any route for the full chain with sources.
Every chain, in full
The complete record behind the map — every node, its jurisdiction and role, the finding in plain language, and the documents it rests on.
The Michigan chain: seven shells to a sovereign fund
540,121 acres · Michigan · register says: Singapore
Ends at a foreign state
Verdant Timber / Sage Timber LLCs (5)
Michigan · property vehicles
Delaware corporations
Delaware, US · holding
Two Cayman Islands corporations
Cayman Islands · holding
Delaware company
Delaware, US · holding
Two Singapore companies
Singapore · holding
GIC (Ventures) Pte. Ltd. — Government of Singapore
Singapore · sole shareholder · sovereign wealth fund
Documented via USDA records obtained under FOIA by Bridge Michigan: about 5% of the Upper Peninsula, ultimately owned by the Singapore state. The register file shows only "Singapore."
The Cayman chain: half a million acres, four invisible owners
502,106 acres · Louisiana, New York, Texas, Arkansas +4 · register says: Cayman Islands
US manager — foreign investors invisible
MWF property LLCs (Acadia, Adirondacks, Texarkana, Madison, Azalea…)
Delaware, US · property vehicles
Molpus Woodlands Fund III/IV — Delaware and Cayman parallel LPs
Delaware + Cayman Islands · commingled funds (one Jackson, MS general partner)
Four invisible investors — Fund IV (Cayman) LP is 99% non-US (per SEC Form ADV)
Cayman Islands · foreign investors — identities in no public record
A lawful, standard fund structure whose consequence is that the flag identifies a fund domicile, not an owner. The record stops one layer above the entity.
The Lyme chain: 214,000 Appalachian acres, investors behind a fund wall
214,113 acres · West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania · register says: No foreign investor listed
US manager — foreign investors invisible
Lyme Mountaineer Timberlands I/II + Lyme Emporium Highlands I/II LLCs
Delaware, US · property vehicles (PA block part-financed with $50M in PENNVEST public loans, per a Pennsylvania Auditor General audit)
Lyme Forest Fund IV LP (and successor funds)
Delaware, US · commingled funds — SEC Form D discloses investor counts only
The Lyme Timber Company LP
Hanover, New Hampshire, US · manager (TIMO, ~$774M regulatory AUM)
Fund limited partners — not publicly identified
Unknown (mixed US and foreign) · the foreign interest that put these parcels in the register is not identifiable in any public record
A respected US conservation-forestry manager whose fund vehicles appear in the foreign register with no country listed — meaning foreign investors hold reportable stakes, identities unknown. The presence of public infrastructure loans in the Pennsylvania block is documented by the state auditor. A lawful, standard structure; no record asserts wrongdoing.
The wind chain: six blank filings that end at the French state and friends
200,171 acres · Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Texas +2 · register says: No foreign investor listed / Luxembourg
Ends at a foreign state
Solomon Forks, Jumbo Hill, Red Pine, Milligan 1, Great Western, Panther Grove wind LLCs — LEASEHOLDS on local owners' land
US project companies · wind-lease vehicles whose foreign-owner field is simply blank in the register
ENGIE North America (2 projects) / EDF Renewables North America (3) / Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (1)
US arms · documented owner-operators via press releases, state dockets and comptroller filings
French State (EDF 100%) + ENGIE + Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners
France / Denmark / Luxembourg · ultimate parents — none actually Luxembourgish except CIP's fund shells
Two hundred thousand acres of leasehold filings with an empty owner field resolve, through entirely public transactions, to European state-linked utilities — including a company wholly owned by the French Republic. The register knew none of it. Leaseholds only: the land itself stays with its American owners. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The Tamarack chain: a no-country block that ends at a Canadian pension giant
197,794 acres · Alabama, Louisiana · register says: No foreign investor listed
Documented private owner
Tamarack TimberCo AL / LA LLCs
Delaware, US · property vehicles (RMS-managed, formed 2020)
Tamarack Timberlands LLC
Delaware, US · holding vehicle
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board
Ontario, Canada · documented owner — Jan 2022 announcement (~870,000 US South acres, ~US$625M)
The register carries this block with no foreign country at all; the owner announced itself. Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan stated in January 2022 that its vehicle took direct ownership of roughly 870,000 acres of US South timberland, with Birmingham, Alabama manager Resource Management Service staying on. A documented structure; no record asserts any wrongdoing.
The Oregon chain: the holding that was never in the register
197,000 acres · Oregon · register says: NOT FILED
Never filed with the register
Whitefish Cascade Forest Resources LLC (renamed Shanda Asset Management LLC, 2017)
Oregon, US · property vehicle
Shanda Group
Singapore (HQ at purchase) · family office / parent
Bought 2015 for ~$85.5M; USDA stated it learned of the holding from Oregon 2023 tax records, nearly nine years later. Absent from every public detailed file 2016-2024, under any country.
The FS chain: 193,000 no-country acres that resolve to Munich Re
193,487 acres · Texas, Louisiana · register says: No foreign investor listed
Documented private owner
FS Louisiana II LLC (+ siblings FS Texas, FS Louisiana I, Faunus Silva)
Delaware, US · property vehicles at the Boston office of manager Manulife Investment Management (fka Hancock Natural Resource Group)
FS San Augustine LLC: inferred Munich Re affiliate only
Texas, US · no LEI; the link rests on its registration at Munich Re America's Princeton, NJ headquarters address — not independently confirmed
Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG (Munich Re)
Munich, Germany · direct and ultimate parent per GLEIF level-2 data (fully corroborated) — FS Louisiana II and named siblings
The world's largest reinsurer sits behind one of the register's largest no-country blocks — established for FS Louisiana II and its named siblings by fully corroborated GLEIF parent records. The FS San Augustine link is an address-based inference and is labeled as such. No record asserts any wrongdoing.
The CF/FIA chain: the Goodman forest, recoded from Luxembourg to nowhere
160,477 acres · Wisconsin, Alabama, Georgia, Oregon +1 · register says: No predominant country
US manager — foreign investors invisible
CF/FIA LLC + FIA Timber Partners II, L.P.
Delaware, US · property vehicles (incl. the historic Goodman Lumber forest in Wisconsin)
Forest Investment Associates L.P.
Atlanta, Georgia, US · manager (SEC-registered TIMO, employee-owned since 2026)
Fund investors — ~10 beneficial owners, ~40% non-US, never named
Multiple countries, unrecorded · the register briefly attributed the SC land to Luxembourg in 2012, then recoded it to no predominant country
SEC filings document the fund structure and an approximately 40% non-US ownership share; the register itself moved this block from a Luxembourg label to no label at all. The investors have never been publicly identified. A lawful structure; no record asserts wrongdoing.
The Connor chain: a 1982 Swiss sale, then forty years of silence
159,467 acres · Michigan, New York · register says: No foreign investor listed
The public record stopsOwner: historical
Connor Forest Industries, Inc. (Delaware, 1982 — legacy Wisconsin timber name)
Delaware, US · property vehicle / AFIDA registrant since 1982
Last documented owner (1982): a Swiss family investment group headed by industrialist Stephan Schmidheiny — current owner UNKNOWN
Switzerland · 1982 purchaser per a University of Wisconsin Press biography and Wisconsin Historical Society records; no filing since names any shareholder
The fourth-generation Wisconsin timber company was broken up in 1982; a published biography and the state historical archive document the Upper Peninsula land passing to a Swiss family investment group. The register has carried the block ever since with no foreign investor listed, and no public record in four decades names the current shareholders. Historical ownership only — nothing documents who owns it today, and no record asserts any wrongdoing.
The Picus / Southbound chain: one company, two country labels — again
129,500 acres · Alabama, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York +4 · register says: Luxembourg + Germany (Picus Silva is split between both in the same file)
US manager — foreign investors invisible
Picus Silva, Inc. (~72,800 ac) — register splits it between Luxembourg AND Germany
Delaware, US · property vehicle registered care of Forest Investment Associates, Atlanta
Southbound Timberlands + Three Steps Forest (~56,700 ac)
Delaware, US · property vehicles at the Exeter, NH office of Conservation Resource Partners (an SEC adviser also registered with the Dutch AFM and UK FCA)
Luxembourg holding entities — investors not publicly identified
Luxembourg · register attribution; European institutional capital indicated by the managers' EU registrations
The same company's parcels carry two different country labels in the same federal file — the register's label instability, previously documented in the Syngenta and Formosa cases, repeating inside the fund world. Owners not identifiable. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The HTFF chain: Manulife runs it; 61 unnamed investors own it
124,922 acres · Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia +2 · register says: No foreign investor listed
US manager — foreign investors invisibleOwner: inferred
HTFF REIT Inc + HTFF SE-A / SE-T LLCs
Delaware, US · property vehicles administered from Manulife's Boston timberland office
Hancock Timberland & Farmland Fund LP — link inferred
Delaware, US · $1.48B open-end fund; the equity link to the land vehicles is inferred from the HTFF acronym, shared address, officers and filing dates — no document states it
Manulife = manager/GP only — 61 unnamed fund investors own it, ~46% non-US (SEC Form ADV)
Toronto, Canada (manager); investors unrecorded · per SEC Form ADV — Manulife controls the manager and GP; it is not the economic owner
A major insurer's name is on every filing as manager — but per the SEC record the land economically belongs to sixty-one fund investors, nearly half non-US, whom no public document names. The fund-to-vehicle link itself is inferred, and labeled so. A lawful structure; no record asserts wrongdoing.
The Val Verde chain: anonymous vehicles, documented parent
116,699 acres · Texas · register says: China
Documented private owner
Brazos Highland Properties LP + Harvest Texas LLC
Texas, US · property vehicles
GH America Investments Group
US (2015) · US arm
Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment Group
China · parent group
The register got the country right; the connection between the vehicle names and the documented parent — and to the CFIUS-reviewed wind project near Laughlin AFB — exists only outside the register (Forbes; Texas legislative record).
The Acer Klamath chain: an Australian manager, Japanese owners of the manager, and a client nobody names
108,483 acres · California · register says: No foreign investor listed
US manager — foreign investors invisible
Acer Klamath Forest LLC
Delaware, US · private-REIT property vehicle (SEC Form D signed by New Forests executives)
New Forests Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia · investment manager — itself 49% Mitsui and 41% Nomura (both Tokyo-listed) since 2022
Client investor — not public; the manager is Australian, the manager’s owners Japanese
Not public · New Forests' announcements say the land was bought for a client; no record identifies it or its nationality
Part of a ~265,000-acre Northern California estate assembled 2021-2022. Every layer of management is documented — down to the Japanese trading house and bank that own the manager — but the capital itself belongs to a client no public record names. A lawful structure; no record asserts wrongdoing.
The Nevada ghost: 108,000 'Hong Kong' acres held by a company dissolved in 2007
108,000 acres · Nevada · register says: Hong Kong
The public record stopsStale / divested — excluded from totalsOwner: historical
NV BIG SPRINGS INC. — dissolved 2007; county rolls show it owns no real property
Nevada, US · frozen 1988 filing ($2.5M 'current value', unchanged in every file since at least 2010); the ranch itself passed through six owners to Nevada Gold Mines
The register's Hong Kong attribution — no Hong Kong entity named anywhere
Hong Kong · the basis for one of the largest 'Hong Kong' holdings in the US register
Inferred 1988-era owner — Universe Ltd. (Liberia) / Yaw family (Samling), per SEC 13D; link to the land entity inferred from identical officer slates
Liberia / Malaysia · historical inference, labeled as such
One of the register's largest Hong Kong entries is a ghost three times over: the company is dissolved, the ranch has long since passed to a US gold-mining joint venture, and the only trail to a historical owner is an inferred officer-slate match pointing not to Hong Kong but to a Malaysian timber family via a Liberian holding company. Stale; excluded from current totals; the inference is labeled. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The Texas wind chain: a state investor arrives, filings follow
106,286 acres · Texas · register says: United Arab Emirates
Ends at a foreign state
Reveille X LLC + Monte Alto Windpower LLC
Texas, US · wind-leasehold vehicles
Terra-Gen Power Holdings II
US · developer / platform
Masdar (50%, Oct 2024) — owned by TAQA, Mubadala, ADNOC
Abu Dhabi, UAE · state-owned investor
First appear in the 2024 file although the leases date to 2017-2023 — consistent with filings triggered when the platform became foreign-held.
The Oak Mountain / Shades Mountain chain: sister funds, unnamed investors
102,156 acres · Alabama, Louisiana · register says: No foreign investor listed
US manager — foreign investors invisible
Oak Mountain / Shades Mountain TimberCo LLCs
Delaware, US · property vehicles
Oak Mountain / Shades Mountain Timberlands LLCs
Delaware, US · pooled fund vehicles (joint SEC Form D with Tamarack)
Investors not named — RMS Evergreen US Forestland Fund LP: $1.28B, 19 owners, 53% non-US (SEC Form ADV)
Delaware, US · open-end fund: $1.28B gross, 19 beneficial owners, 53% non-US (SEC Form ADV)
Sister vehicles of the Tamarack block under the same Alabama manager, but with no announced owner: SEC filings document an open-end fund with 19 investors, majority non-US, whose identities appear in no public record. A lawful, standard structure; no record asserts wrongdoing.
The Sandy Gray chain: a Luxembourg investor, sold on but never unregistered
100,060 acres · Maine · register says: Luxembourg
US manager — foreign investors invisibleStale / divested — excluded from totals
Sandy Gray Forest LLC
Delaware, US (Maine land) · property vehicle — $43M acquisition, Dec 2016, incl. 20 miles of the Golden Road
Conservation Resources (manager — inferred from shared registered office)
Exeter, New Hampshire, US · SEC-registered timberland manager; matching fund (by manager and vintage, match inferred, not documented): Conservation Forestry Capital IV, L.P., marketed to European institutions by Denmark's IWC
The Luxembourg investor — never named
Luxembourg · the register's attribution; no public record identifies it
The tract was sold in December 2023 to Huber Timber, a family-owned US company, and 2024 tax rolls confirm the new owner — yet the register still carried the Luxembourg entry at the 2024 snapshot. Stale; excluded from current totals. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The Smithfield chain: attribution can pierce — when the owner is known
100,010 acres · Missouri, North Carolina, Utah, Virginia · register says: China
Documented private owner
Murphy Brown LLC + Murphy Brown of Missouri LLC
US · property vehicles
Smithfield Foods
US · operating company
WH Group
China (HK-listed) · parent
The counter-example the map needs: a multi-tier chain the register attributes correctly, because the ultimate owner is publicly known.
The Menasha chain: a legacy name, a 2016 sale, a Luxembourg blank
96,670 acres · Oregon, Washington · register says: Luxembourg
US manager — foreign investors invisible
Menasha Forest Products Corp + Menasha Development Corp — NOT the Wisconsin packaging company (name is a legacy of a 2001 spin-off)
Delaware, US · property vehicles retained under old names through successive sales
Forest Investment Associates L.P.
Atlanta, Georgia, US · manager — FIA and Rayonier jointly bought all Menasha stock in May 2016 (SEC-filed); FIA's client kept this remainder
UNKNOWN
Luxembourg · register attribution, acquired 2016; identity not disclosed in any record
The name suggests a Wisconsin packaging company; the reality is a fund client behind a 2016 acquisition, attributed to Luxembourg with nothing more. The de-conflation matters — the packaging company has no documented link to this land. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The Okeelanta chain: sugar land in the foreign register, trigger unnamed
93,705 acres · Florida · register says: No foreign investor listed
Documented private owner
Okeelanta Corporation
Delaware, US (Florida operations) · AFIDA-registered sugarcane land, mill and refinery vehicle
Florida Crystals Corporation
Delaware, US · parent sugar company
Fanjul Corp. — the Fanjul family's holding company
West Palm Beach, Florida, US · ultimate corporate parent, documented in Florida records and major press
The corporate chain is fully documented and American. What is not documented is the reason the block sits in the FOREIGN register: AFIDA treats a US company as a foreign person when foreign individuals or entities hold ten percent or more, and the filings name no such investor. Press reporting that family patriarchs have long maintained Spanish citizenship offers a possible — but unconfirmed — explanation; no record identifies which person or persons triggered the registration. No record asserts any wrongdoing.
The Riverwood ghost: a 1996 GIC stake the register never let go
91,922 acres · Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas · register says: Singapore
Ends at a foreign stateStale / divested — excluded from totals
Riverwood International Corporation (now Graphic Packaging)
Delaware, US · AFIDA-registered landowner of record — in 1996
Riverwood Holding, Inc. (1996 LBO vehicle)
Delaware, US · top holding company from the March 1996 buyout
HWH Investment Pte Ltd — 9.2% stake
Singapore · SEC 13G control chain runs through GIC Special Investments to the Government of Singapore
Government of Singapore — via GIC Special Investments (SEC 13G control chain)
Singapore · ultimate owner of the 1996 stake; the land itself was sold in October 1996 (see note)
Read carefully, this is not a Singapore holding — it is a fossil. A Singapore state vehicle held 9.2% of the parent for a few months in 1996 before the company sold all 538,000 timberland acres; SEC filings document both ends. The register never updated. These acres are excluded from current-holding totals on this page. No record asserts any wrongdoing.
The Bavarian Timber chain: seven states, one Luxembourg blank
78,032 acres · Washington, Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina +3 · register says: Luxembourg
US manager — foreign investors invisible
Bavarian Timber 2015, LLC + Bavarian Timber 2017, LLC
Delaware, US · separate-account property vehicles (part traces to Rayonier's SEC-filed 2016 sale of ~55,000 Washington acres for ~$130M)
Forest Investment Associates L.P.
Atlanta, Georgia, US · manager — the LLCs' principal address and listed officers are FIA's
The Luxembourg owner — never named in any record
Luxembourg · register attribution only
The vehicle names and a Luxembourg-administered German timber fund of matching era are consistent with — but do not document — a German institutional investor, and no owner field on this page carries that inference. What is documented: the land, the manager, and a Luxembourg label with nothing behind it in the public record. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The bird-fund chain: Kestrel, Goldeneye and Talavera fly to Luxembourg
71,400 acres · Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas · register says: Luxembourg
US manager — foreign investors invisible
Kestrel Timber I/II, Goldeneye Timber I/II, Talavera Timber LP
Delaware / Texas, US · property vehicles registered at the Atlanta headquarters suite of Timberland Investment Resources
TIR Europe Forestry Funds (three Luxembourg funds, RCS-registered) — vehicle-to-fund pairing inferred from formation/acquisition timing
Luxembourg · European institutional capital raised exclusively for US timberland; managed by FCA-regulated TIR Europe LLP (UK)
European institutional investors — not publicly identified (Development Bank of Japan documented in one fund)
Europe / Japan · ultimate capital
Three US-managed, bird-named vehicle families trace to a documented Luxembourg fund platform built for European institutions — but no public document names which fund owns which vehicle, and the pairings shown here are timing inferences, labeled as such. A lawful structure; no record asserts wrongdoing.
The AZL fossil: Khashoggi-era conglomerate land, frozen since the 1970s
62,647 acres · Arizona, New Mexico · register says: Luxembourg
The public record stopsStale / divested — excluded from totalsOwner: historical
AZL Resources, Inc. + Angel Fire Corp. (Arizona-Colorado Land & Cattle lineage)
US · register entries acquired 1970/1972 — carried verbatim-identical in every published file since 2010
Documented historical control: Adnan Khashoggi's Triad group (1974-), then a Maurice Strong-led group (1978-1983), then US refiner Tosco (1983 merger; assets sold 1984-85)
Saudi Arabia/Switzerland; Canada; US · all principals deceased; history documented in press and corporate records of the era
The Luxembourg attribution — nothing behind it in any record
Luxembourg · the register's only living claim, half a century old
The land moved on decades ago — the Angel Fire resort acreage passed through a 1993 bankruptcy to US owners with no documented foreign link — but the register still carries 62,000 Luxembourg-flagged acres from the Nixon era. A fossil, excluded from current totals. No record asserts wrongdoing by anyone living or dead.
The Vulcan chain: timber deeds under a Luxembourg flag
61,200 acres · Florida, Oregon, Washington · register says: Luxembourg
US manager — foreign investors invisible
Vulcan Timberlands LLC — NOT Vulcan Inc. or Vulcan Materials (no connection documented)
Delaware, US · holds 20-year TIMBER DEEDS (standing timber only; the Florida land itself stayed with St. Joe and successors), ~$55.9M per SEC filings
New Growth Olympus, LLC
Delaware, US · fee owner of ~20,200 Oregon/Washington acres from the 2016 Menasha transactions
Managers: Resource Management Service (Vulcan) / Forest Investment Associates (New Growth)
Alabama / Georgia, US · documented in SEC Form D and state records
UNKNOWN
Luxembourg · register attribution; no owner identified in any public record
Includes the subtlety the register flattens: part of this block is not land at all but twenty-year rights to standing timber on someone else's land. Owners unknown. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The Rayonier phantom: a US REIT's land wearing a Luxembourg flag
60,232 acres · Oregon, Washington · register says: Luxembourg
Documented private owner
Rayonier Washington Timberlands Acquisition 1, LLC
US · property vehicle from the May 2016 Menasha purchase (~$263M, SEC-filed)
The register's Luxembourg attribution — unexplained
Luxembourg · carried unchanged every year since 2016; the unnamed foreign person of the 2016 filing is identified nowhere
Rayonier Inc.
US (NYSE: RYN) · documented owner throughout — a US public REIT with no documented Luxembourg parent or 10% Luxembourg holder
The clearest register-integrity case in the set: publicly documented American ownership on one side, a Luxembourg label on the other, and no public way to reconcile them. Rayonier sold much of the Oregon acreage in 2024; the label persisted. No record asserts any wrongdoing — the finding here is about the register.
The ORM chain: a dedicated feeder for exactly four foreign investors
50,577 acres · California, Oregon, Washington · register says: No foreign investor listed
US manager — foreign investors invisible
ORM Timber Fund III (REIT) Inc.
Delaware, US · property vehicle holding fee title
ORM Timber Fund III (Foreign) LLC — $102.3M from exactly 4 non-US investors
Delaware, US · dedicated foreign feeder, 57% of the fund, per SEC Form D
Manager: BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (since 2021)
Atlanta, US — parent Banco BTG Pactual, Brazil · manager succession documented via Pope Resources/Rayonier/BTG transactions
The four foreign investors — never named
Countries not documented · ~34% of the fund remains non-US per the current Form ADV
The SEC record is unusually precise about everything except what matters most: a purpose-built Delaware feeder took $102.3 million — most of the fund — from exactly four non-US investors whose names and countries appear nowhere. A lawful structure; no record asserts wrongdoing.
The Monette chain: the benign case — a Canadian family farm, fully documented
46,627 acres · Montana · register says: No foreign investor listed
Documented private owner
Monette Farms USA Inc
Montana, US · US operating subsidiary (Havre and Billings, MT)
Monette Farms Ltd
Saskatchewan, Canada · family farming corporation — ownership fully stated in court-supervised insolvency records (CCAA/Chapter 15, 2026)
The map needs its honest baseline: a no-country register entry that resolves completely, to a Canadian family farm operation, through routine court records. The group entered creditor protection in 2026 — a restructuring, which is not an accusation of anything. This is what most of the register's quiet entries probably look like.
The Wolf Bone chain: the world's largest oil trader, four tiers up
44,709 acres · Texas · register says: No foreign investor listed
Documented private ownerStale / divested — excluded from totals
Wolf Bone Ranch Partners LLC
Texas, US · surface, water-services and land vehicle (produced-water handling ~300,000 bbl/d) — not conventional farmland
VTX Energy Partners, LLC
Delaware/Texas, US · Vitol's US upstream company, per Vitol's own release and SEC filings
Vitol (Vitol Holding B.V.)
Netherlands / Geneva, Switzerland · employee-owned energy trading group — the foreign interest sitting several tiers above a no-country filing
Sold to NYSE-listed LandBridge on December 20, 2024 — eleven days before the register's snapshot date — and still carried as held. Documented end to end via SEC filings and both companies' announcements; no university endowment appears anywhere in the documented record, pre-empting a circulating conflation. Stale; excluded from current totals. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The El Maximo chain: Dubai's sovereign fund on a Florida ranch — then a sale the register missed
39,817 acres · Florida · register says: United Arab Emirates
Ends at a foreign stateStale / divested — excluded from totals
El Maximo Ranch Holdings LLC (dissolved May 2024)
Florida, US · JV property vehicle — bought the former Latt Maxcy ranch for $136.5M in 2018
Investment Corporation of Dubai (JV with Optimum Agriculture of Miami/Argentina)
Dubai, UAE · sovereign wealth fund capital partner
Government of Dubai
UAE · sole owner of ICD by Dubai law
A complete, documented chain to a foreign state — and a complete exit: the ranch was sold to Florida Power & Light for $212 million in November 2023 and the LLC dissolved, yet the entry survived into the year-end 2024 register. Stale; excluded from current totals. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The Beaver Timber blank: a Panama corporation frozen in 1983
19,968 acres · Florida · register says: Panama
The public record stopsStale / divested — excluded from totals
BEAVER TIMBER HOLDINGS, INC. — 45% interest, acquired April 1983
Panama · register row byte-identical since at least 2010; no current Okaloosa County parcel is titled to any Beaver Timber entity
UNKNOWN — Panama's public registry does not disclose beneficial owners
Panama · the record stops at the name
Another ghost: a four-decade-old Panama entry the county rolls no longer recognize. Whoever stood behind it, the register preserved only the flag. Stale; excluded from current totals. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The Devils Tower chain: a Bahamas partnership and an inferred famous name
18,931 acres · Wyoming · register says: Bahamas
Documented private ownerOwner: inferred
YPI Ranch Limited Partnership (register) / YPI Inc. (county rolls)
Bahamas / Wyoming, US · ranch at Devils Tower; same PO Box ties the entities in county, state and FAA records
Inferred: Dorrance family interests — convergence of county assessor, Wyoming SoS, FAA records and 1990 press; no single document states the LP's ownership
Ireland (Campbell Soup heir John T. Dorrance III renounced US citizenship in 1995 — heavily documented) · the inference is labeled; the expatriation is public record
The 1990s tax-expatriation story, preserved in a register entry: press of the era documents the ranch as the Campbell Soup heir's; the specific Bahamas partnership's ownership is inferred from converging public records and labeled as such. No record asserts wrongdoing — renouncing citizenship and offshore holding are lawful.
The CB Forest chain: a fresh Liechtenstein purchase inside a New York conservation easement
18,360 acres · New York · register says: Liechtenstein
The public record stops
CB Forest Limited
Georgia, US (NY-qualified 2023) · paid $14.1M in December 2023 for the 18,360-acre Five Mile working forest, St. Lawrence County — land under a New York State conservation easement
UNKNOWN — Liechtenstein investor(s)
Liechtenstein · no US filing names the owners; administered from a timber manager's post office box in Albany, Georgia
Not a fossil — a 2023 transaction. Conservation-eased New York forest, bought through a Georgia shell for a Liechtenstein principal nobody can identify. The easement's public benefits are unaffected; the ownership is simply dark. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The North Country chain: leaseholds, not land — ending at two states at once
18,328 acres · New York · register says: United Arab Emirates
Ends at a foreign state
NY North Country, LLC — LEASEHOLDS only; fee title stays with local landowners
Delaware, US (NY-qualified) · wind-project company assembling rent-paying leases for a proposed 364.5 MW project
Terra-Gen, LLC
US · developer parent, per New York siting documents
Half Abu Dhabi state (Masdar: TAQA/Mubadala/ADNOC), half Japan-linked (Igneo)
UAE / Japan · the register attributes 100% to the UAE; the documented split is half Abu Dhabi state, half Japanese-ultimate
The most important word in this chain is leasehold: no local land changed owners. The register attributes the whole interest to the UAE; the documented ownership is an even split between an Abu Dhabi state company and a Japanese-owned infrastructure investor. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The Anstalt: Liechtenstein's black box, holding US farms since 1979
16,152 acres · Maryland, North Carolina · register says: Liechtenstein
The public record stops
SEG ANSTALT
Liechtenstein · the register's only trace: a Maryland farm (1979) and North Carolina cropland (1980-82), unchanged in every file since 2010
UNKNOWN — an Anstalt's founders and beneficiaries are not disclosed in any register
Liechtenstein · the public record stops at the vehicle's name
The purest record-stops case on the map: no press mention, no SEC trace, no LEI — nothing but four register rows and a legal form purpose-built for anonymity. Forty-six years of US farmland ownership with no identifiable owner. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The Yellowhammer blank: a Luxembourg vehicle with no documented manager at all
15,375 acres · Alabama, Georgia · register says: Luxembourg
The public record stops
Yellowhammer Timber, LLC
Delaware, US · property vehicle — even its manager could not be documented
UNKNOWN
Luxembourg · register attribution only; the public record stops immediately
Grouped by naming style with the bird funds, but grouping is itself an attribution — and nothing documents this vehicle's manager, fund, or owner. The shortest chain on the map, and the fastest to go dark. No record asserts wrongdoing.
The Syngenta chain: one owner, two flags
2,978 acres · Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, California +9 · register says: China (10 states) + Switzerland (5 states)
Ends at a foreign state
Northrup King Seed Co. + Syngenta Seeds vehicles
US · property vehicles
Syngenta
Switzerland · group
ChemChina / Sinochem
China · state-owned parent
The same family is attributed to China in ten states and Switzerland in five, in the same file. Arkansas enforced against it as Chinese state-controlled: divestment + $280,000.
The Grand Forks chain: two HK$2 companies wide of the China total
366 acres · North Dakota · register says: Hong Kong
Documented private owner
Fufeng USA Incorporated
Illinois, US · operator / land buyer
Fufeng USA Holdings Limited (paid-up HKD 2)
Hong Kong · investment holding
Trans-Asia Capital Resources Ltd. (paid-up HKD 2)
Hong Kong · investment holding
Fufeng Group Limited (HKEX 546; operations Shandong, PRC)
Cayman Islands (inc.) / Hong Kong (listed) · ultimate parent
Attributed to Hong Kong in every file since 2022; no secondary-China flag; outside the register China total. USDA penalty for filing late: $1,387.79.
Method & machine access
Register facts (entities, acres, attributions) are computed from the USDA FSA AFIDA detailed files (public domain). Chain nodes follow the documents cited on each chain — FOIA-obtained USDA ownership records as reported by documented investigations, HKEX and SEC filings, state comptroller and conservation records, and government press releases. The map grows as chains are resolved; unresolved major blocks are listed in the attribution-gap section. The structured chains ship in the keyless JSON under shellMap at /foreign-farmland/index.json. CC0.
Part of Foreign-Held U.S. Farmland. Related reading: Follow Every Flag (the capstone synthesis of this map), The Shell Game in the Farmland Register, and the state-law wave.