Tracy Rehberg, Contributing Editor

Ted Turner and the New West

Like him or not, when children of future generations crack their virtual American History books, Ted Turner is going to have his own chapter among such pivotal men as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. There is no telling, in the end, what his credits wi ll include. Certainly, he will be dubbed the father of modern media – the inventor of the Superstation and its boundless satellite reach; the brainchild of CNN and its addictive 24/7 news format. We can hope that history will honor Mr. Turner as a global peacemaker thanks to his ornery soapbox antics, his one billion dollar pledge to the United Nations (the world’s largest private donation), and his $250 million Nuclear Threat Initiative aimed to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear weapons. Turner’s most speculative legacy, however, resides in the land he amasses.

Turner, a self-described land collector, has used his fortune to become America’s largest private landowner whose geographic empire totals close to two million acres, including vast expanses of ranchland. For 16 years he has stockpiled open country, and rancher legend still whirs that Ted has a standing offer to buy from anyone looking to sell. Many theorize that the reason is greed – an egotistical need to own a swath of North America too big to go unnoted. Ranchers tend to view him as an environmental extremist whose intent is to return the West to the wild, and keep it that way. Many environmentalists see Turner as a hypocrite who hides behind tax-friendly conservation easements and initiatives to turn a profit from the land and its restored wildlife. It is probable that the truth lies elsewhere and in places in between.

It’s no secret that Ted Turner wants to the restore the ecosystem that once existed in the West. In addition to his herd of an estimated 40,000 bison, the largest in the U.S., he has reintroduced dozens of species to their native habitats, including wolves, bears, elk, fox, prairie dogs, owl, woodpeckers, trout, bees and weeds. His mass purchases have enabled islands of endangered species to connect. He has placed hundreds of thousands of acres in conservation easements that prohibit the use and development of the land in perpetuity. He has extensively funded groups that lobby for the protection of wetlands and endangere d species, and formed his own non-profit foundation, the Turner Endangered Species Fund, that emphasizes the preservation of carnivores and grasslands that, at one time in history, thrived on the property Turner manages. Following Ted’s lifespan, the land will be placed in trust to his children and the Foundation, and the initiative will continue.

Domestic livestock ranchers fear that Turner’s elitist course may endanger their ability to stay in business. The return of predators to the plains is a threat that ranchers have fought for years to resolve. They worry about the risk of disease posed by bison. In cattle country, they question the permanent removal of land from production. And, they shake in their boots at the thought of an environmental activist movement with enough clout to turn more public lands and unforeseen wetlands into stagnant grassland museums.

But, Ted is a dichotomy of sorts. On one hand, he is steadfastly committed to the conservation of biodiversity by saving imperiled species and their habitats. On the other, Turner is a profiteer who permits hunting and fishing on his property, for a lofty fee, and runs an asserti vely for-profit bison operation in which he has crafted his own market using Ted’s Montana Grill – a chain of 40 bison-serving restaurants in 16 states.

“It’s a very view of nature guaranteed to thrill and piss off everyone from Greenpeace to the Beef Industry,” wrote Journalist Jack Hitt in an Outdoor Magazine feature on Ted Turner in December 2001.

Turner’s refusal to align himself completely with the ideals of environmentalists or ranchers reminds one of his early trailblazing where a dim investment and an outlandish idea transformed a sunken UHF station into the pinnacle of broadcast media. With his land, he aims to strike a brave new relationship between man, the land and its habitat. As a conservationist and shrewd businessman, Turner is in pursuit of balance between the stewardship of biodiversity and economic viability on a level the world has never seen.

Some cattlemen have surmised that their best bet for the future may be to embrace Ted’s principles and learn to thrive in his bold new world of cow and critter. There is, after all, an awfully broad stretch of land slated to revert back to the wild. Only time will tell what history makes of Ted’s New West. Will it be a novelty like we presume bison-as-dinner to be? Or will it be something our nation decides is worth savoring?