Media mogul Ted Turner died Wednesday, leaving behind a conservation legacy that spans more than 3,125 square miles (8,094 square kilometers) of ranchland across the United States and Patagonia. Turner’s holdings, which include 13 ranches in six states and multiple Argentine estancias, have been progressively converted from traditional agricultural operations to active habitat restoration and ecosystem recovery zones.
According to Turner Enterprises, which manages Turner’s business interests and land investments, the media mogul structured his holdings to ensure continued protection from commercial development after his death. The conservation timeline began in 1976 with Turner’s purchase of his first bison and accelerated in 1987 when he acquired his first ranch, eventually establishing a network of properties that operate as living laboratories for ecological restoration.
Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy, said in a statement that Turner’s approach to land management scaled up what had previously been localized conservation efforts. “He invested in land, restored ecosystems, and showed what’s possible when you pair vision with real commitment,” Morris said. She noted that Turner’s work helped redefine conservation by demonstrating how private lands and private capital can function as forces for public good.
Former CNN President Tom Johnson told the AP that Turner aimed to preserve landscapes as they existed before widespread commercialization. “In this era of development and commercialization and bad zoning, he cleaned up the streams and brought back the gray wolves and the prairie dog,” Johnson said. “I mean, he really cared about nature and was seeing what was happening.”
Turner frequently cited a childhood reading of National Geographic as the catalyst for his conservation focus. At the Flying D Ranch near Bozeman, Montana, he replaced traditional cattle grazing with a bison herd to rehabilitate overgrazed native prairie ecosystems. At Vermejo Park Ranch, spanning over 870 square miles near the New Mexico-Colorado border, teams have worked to rehabilitate land degraded by historical mining and logging while maintaining a herd of bison that ranch managers describe as genetically pure.
The transition to conservation-focused land management drew mixed reactions. Turner’s acquisition of Argentine ranch lands during privatization waves in the 1990s and 2000s initially sparked nationalist concerns regarding foreign ownership of natural resources and access to rivers and lakes, though his emphasis on low-impact ecotourism eventually tempered much of the criticism. In the western U.S., some livestock organizations opposed his shift away from cattle and his support for Mexican wolf breeding programs on his Ladder Ranch in New Mexico, citing concerns about wolf predation on domestic herds.
Turner popularized “eco-capitalism” by integrating revenue-generating hospitality and meat-production programs into his conservation model. George McKerrow, co-founder of Ted’s Montana Grill, said the commercialization of bison meat stimulated breeding operations that benefited the species overall. “By making it a commodity, by making a business out of it, it caused people to get into the bison ranching business, which spread the gene pool dramatically and has made the bison herd extremely healthy,” McKerrow said.
Beyond bison recovery, Turner funded ongoing endangered species programs through the Turner Endangered Species Fund. The fund operates a captive breeding program for the Bolson tortoise at New Mexico’s Armendaris Ranch. At Vermejo Park Ranch and South Dakota’s Bad River Ranch, Turner’s teams partner with state and federal scientists to support recovery populations of black-footed ferrets, Aplomado falcons, desert bighorn sheep, bats and monarch butterflies. Turner summarized the cross-species philosophy with a bumper sticker phrase: “Save Everything.”