As we say goodbye to Ted Turner, most people will remember him as the media titan who launched CNN and forever changed television news. Or the guy who transformed the Atlanta Braves into "America’s Team" in the late 1970s.
But one of Turner’s most important contributions had nothing to do with cable news or billion-dollar deals. It had to do with bison, trout, and longleaf pines and the idea that if you are fortunate enough to own a piece of this country, you should leave it better than you found it.
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Sam Donaldson stands with Ted Turner and Jane Fonda on their ranch on Nov. 3, 1997. (Jerry Fitzgerald/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
At a time when America’s public lands and wildlife habitats are increasingly threatened by development, shrinking conservation budgets and political battles over land use, Turner stood apart from many ultra-wealthy Americans.
Because he actually put his money where his mouth was. And not in the performative, "I bought carbon offsets for my private jet" kind of way.
Instead, Ted Turner bought massive amounts of land, and he spent decades working to restore it.
Turner ultimately amassed roughly 2 million acres across the United States — making him one of the largest private landowners in America. But unlike plenty of wealthy investors who buy ranches as status symbols or hunting playgrounds, Turner viewed his properties as restoration projects.
I’M A CONSERVATIVE FARMER. WE NEED TO PROTECT CONSERVATION FUNDING
His intent was to keep these places "as natural as possible."
That meant limiting pesticides, rebuilding native habitats and removing invasive species. He also planted more than a million longleaf pines across the South because, as Turner bluntly put it, "historically we cut them all down, and they are a critical part of the environment in this part of the world."
It also meant protecting the animals that call the land home.
Turner helped restore populations of red-cockaded woodpeckers, native trout species, prairie dogs, Mexican gray wolves and Bolson tortoises.
And then, of course, there were the bison. Lots and lots of bison.
Ted Turner and Sam Donaldson appear together on Primetime Live, aired Nov. 3, 1997. (Jerry Fitzgerald/Disney General Entertainment Content)
Turner became the owner of the world’s largest private bison herd — around 45,000 animals spread across multiple ranches. But even that wasn’t just some eccentric billionaire hobby. He viewed the species as critical to restoring the ecology of the Great Plains because bison graze differently than cattle and naturally help regenerate grassland ecosystems.
And that’s the thing about Turner’s approach to conservation. It was never passive. He didn’t believe "preservation" simply meant locking land away and admiring it from afar. He believed humans had an obligation to actively repair damage that had already been done.
And frankly, that’s a mindset we could use a lot more of right now.
We’ve lost the plot on conservation
Whether you lean right or left, conservation should not be political. Protecting wildlife habitats shouldn’t be controversial. Keeping rivers fishable and forests healthy shouldn’t be controversial.
And conserving America’s natural beauty for future generations absolutely should not be controversial, either.
For decades, conservation was actually one of the most bipartisan ideas in the country. Theodore Roosevelt practically built the modern conservation movement. Hunters and anglers funded wildlife restoration through licenses and excise taxes. Ranchers, outdoorsmen and environmentalists often found common ground in protecting the land they all depended on.
Somewhere along the way, though, conservation became tangled up in broader political culture wars.
Turner, despite his outspoken views on climate issues, approached conservation in a far more grounded and practical way. He talked about restoring habitats, protecting species, managing land responsibly, supporting clean water and fixing ecosystems that humans damaged through overdevelopment and neglect.
Those are ideas most Americans — especially people who actually spend time outdoors — can still rally behind.
Turner also understood that conservation and public enjoyment do not have to be mutually exclusive.
Ted Turner left a lasting legacy on his land
Some of Turner's properties evolved into what he called "vacations with purpose," where tourism revenue helped fund conservation work. Luxury lodges and guest experiences on his reserves helped keep enormous swaths of land intact and undeveloped.
That’s huge. Because one of the biggest threats to wildlife habitat in America today is fragmentation. We see it when ranches become subdivisions. Forests become strip malls. Open land slowly gets chipped away acre by acre until animal migration corridors disappear and ecosystems stop functioning the way they’re supposed to.
Ted Turner helps a biologist release two wolves on his Ladder Ranch property. (William Campbell/Sygma)
Turner understood that once that land is gone, we aren’t getting it back.
And while most of us will never own millions of acres like he did, the broader lesson still applies.
Real conservation doesn’t mean chaining yourself to a tree, throwing soup at paintings or screaming at people on social media.
It means planting native species instead of tearing them out. It means supporting organizations that protect wildlife habitats. And it means teaching your kids to fish, hunt, hike and appreciate the outdoors enough that they’ll want to protect it someday, too.
"If you’re working to help others or make the world better," Turner once said, "you’ll be a lot happier than if all you’re doing is trying to make things better for yourself."
Founder of CNN Ted Turner attends the "Cold War: The Complete Series" screening at The Paley Center for Media in New York City on April 29, 2012. (Matthew Eisman/WireImage)
For all the man accomplished in his 87 years of life — and it was a lot — that may end up being the simplest and most enduring part of his legacy.
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Not CNN or the Braves or TBS. But the land he helped restore and the wildlife that still exists because he cared enough to protect it.
The world needs more Ted Turners.
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