As Largest U.S. Landowner, Turner Tries to Reshape the West

Media mogul Ted Turner is methodically turning back the biological clock in the West.

Thousands of bison graze on his ranches among elk, deer, pronghorn, black bears and cougars.

Turner bankrolls efforts to reestablish populations of Mexican wolves, cutthroat trout, gray wolves, swift fox, black-tailed prairie dogs, California condors, black-footed ferrets, desert bighorn sheep and Aplomado falcons.

Now thought to be the largest private landowner in America, Turner is painting his vision of the West on a 1.7-million-acre canvas while keeping a billionaire’s eye on the bottom line.

Turner Enterprises’ bison-raising is definitely a “for-profit” operation. Turner demands that bison and other operations on his ranches pay their own way. The ranches sell big game hunts for elk, deer and other species costing $8,500 to $12,000, depending on the quality of the trophy.

“The mission is to manage lands in an economic, sustainable and ecologically sensitive manner while conserving native species,” said Russ Miller, general manager of Turner’s ranching operations. But not everyone agrees with Turner’s vision of the West.

Ranchers dismiss his efforts to establish bison rather than domestic livestock as nothing more than romantic nonsense, a futile attempt to turn back time.

They take a far dimmer view of his efforts to nurse back some species they and their ancestors spent a century trying to eradicate, such as gray wolves and prairie dogs.

“What Mr. Turner does on his property is his business. We believe in private property rights,” says Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers. “But it’s what he does that leaves his property, such as raise wolves to be dumped out somewhere else to become our problem, that we object to.”

To Turner, his seemingly eccentric ranching philosophies are far from antiquated. To him, they are cutting edge, mainstream and fully acceptable to the people hired to run his operations.

“When Ted was a young man living in the South, he had a romantic notion about bison, that they were pulled back from the brink of extinction at the turn of the century, and that he’d again like to see thousands of animals spread out on the Plains,” Miller said.

“Once he acquired a ranch in the West, it accorded him a canvas to paint a broader picture with bison. It became an economic proposition melding with his commitment to a species he feels are more environmentally friendly than cattle.”

Now Turner is the largest bison producer in the United States, with about 20,000 head scattered among his ranches.

Since 1987 he has purchased ranches in Montana, New Mexico-Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, making him the largest private landowner in America, according to Worth magazine. He imported bison to his ranches because he believes they are easier on the land than cattle.

In 1997, Turner added another component to his operation: an endangered species restoration program, which he pays for out of his own pocket.

To head his Turner Endangered Species Fund, he turned to Mike Phillips, a leader in the effort to return gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park.

“When we first talked, he only wanted me to work on a captive wolf project on his ranches,” Phillips said. “But that was too narrow, and as we talked, we quickly saw we wanted to expand it to other species as well.

“We aren’t trying to create a preserve and then walk away and let it function on its own. We recognize that man has a role in nature and a stewardship responsibility in that landscape.”

He said the aim is to be exemplary land managers and to show that potential conflicts aren’t as substantial as people first feared.

Phillips said Turner’s ranches are a reflection of his vision of the West.

“When he first bought the Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico, the idea was to take down all the interior fences and let the bison run free,” Phillips said. “We kept the outer fences because we believe fences make good neighbors.”

But it didn’t take long to realize that when bison cross a stream, their considerable weight tears things up.

So he restored about half of the interior fences to protect the streams.

“We raise Mexican wolves in captivity on some of the ranches, but it’s for release in designated areas where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to reestablish populations,” Phillips said.

“We also are working to establish desert bighorn sheep in the San Cristobal Mountains of New Mexico, and the Aplomado falcon as part of a restoration of the Chihuahuan grassland ecosystem.”

At Vermejo Park Ranch there is a captive rearing facility to produce black-footed ferrets, considered to be one of the most endangered species in the nation. Plans also are underway to use Vermejo as a training ground for Mexican wolves before they are released in southern parts of New Mexico.

On the Ladder Ranch in New Mexico, there are plans to establish recovery areas for the California condor and Mexican wolves, which also will be reared in captivity.

On the Flying D Ranch in Montana, work is progressing on west slope cutthroat trout restoration. Also, three timber wolves fitted with canine shock collars are being trained to leave cattle alone.

On the Bad River Ranch in South Dakota, there is work to restore black-tailed prairie dogs where black-footed ferrets could be released, as well as restoration of the swift fox.

But for Cowan of the New Mexico Cattle Growers, Turner’s efforts are little more than a slap in the face to the livestock producers.

“We’ve filed suit against reintroducing Mexican wolf anywhere in the state, and if Mr. Turner is raising them on his properties, then you know our feeling about it,” she said.

Cowan said her members view Turner as a newcomer who hasn’t taken the time to understand the environment that many of the cattle growers have lived with for 400 years.

“He has thumbed his nose at the custom, culture and ethnic diversity of this state. The livestock industry came in with the conquistadors 400 years ago and has been a mainstay of the Anglos, Hispanics and many Indian tribes,” she said. “So when he stands up at New Mexico State University, as he did in the spring of 1997, and says it is foolish to try to raise livestock in the arid climate of New Mexico, he is slapping everybody in the face.”

She said Turner bought land and radically changed the use without understanding the consequences.

“From my perspective, when we talk about resource damage in the West, the vast majority of it was caused by people who came into a brittle environment in the 1880s and didn’t realize there wasn’t going to be all of that lush rain they had east of the Mississippi,” she said. “So they caused the harm our families have spent the past 100 years trying to fix.”

She sees what Turner is doing as the same because he is “naive.”

“He may say what he’s doing remains on his land, but when livestock producers utilize public lands as part of their operation and any of these endangered species issues come up, federal limitations may come about,” Cowan said.

Phillips, who oversees Turner’s wildlife fund, disagrees. There is room for cattle and wolves if both sides can work together, he said.

“There is a large sentiment to restore wolves in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, but it will have to be done with the consent of private landowners,” he said. “You can’t wait for the states or even the Fish and Wildlife Service to do it. The wildlife service is suffering from ‘institutional fatigue’ right now after five years of restoring wolves in Yellowstone and Idaho.”

He said federal wildlife officials want to call it quits on wolf reintroductions, but what actually is needed is a revision of the recovery plan that would call for wolf reintroductions in Colorado and other Southwestern states.

“There is a mother lode of country here, and with more private land, funding, science and cooperation, we could restore wolves here in five to seven years,” Phillips said.

But such an effort won’t work without public-private partnerships, he says.

“We are working to build a dialogue with ranchers,” Phillips said. “I believe by getting people involved, we stand a chance of getting wolves back in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.”

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Turner Endangered Species Fund: https://www.tesf.org/

New Mexico Cattle Growers Assn.: https://www.nmagriculture.org/