Last Stand: Ted Turner's Quest to Save a Troubled Planet
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Ironically, Turner subscribed to both the ideals of Ayn Rand and the Rotary Club as a young man, but eventually rejected Rand’s “greed is good” mantra. “Capitalism isn’t the problem,” he says. “It’s how we practice capitalism that has created many of the challenges now facing humanity.”
Sailing taught Turner how Mother Nature can be harnessed as a powerful force and that, when approached with respect and care, she is always there to provide inspiration.
The image of Turner as a swashbuckling underdog, intrepid competitor, and say-anything personality, was cemented after he skippered Courageous to unlikely victory in the America’s Cup in 1977.
Following his father’s suicide, Turner and his colleagues transformed the family’s billboard business, based in Atlanta, into a global multimedia empire.
Turner made modern history on June 1, 1980, when he launched the first twenty-four-hour news channel, CNN, and went into battle with the major TV networks. “We won’t be signing off until the world ends,” he said.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was more than a mentor for Turner; he was a father figure. For both, their commitment to saving the planet started with their love for the sea.
Turner had meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s to discuss the Goodwill Games and opening a CNN bureau in Moscow. Today, the men are dear friends. This 1986 photo shows Gorbachev and Turner along with Georgi Arbatov and Turner’s valued media executive Robert Wussler.
It wasn’t fame, fortune, and a propensity for being outspoken that drew Turner and actress Jane Fonda together, but a major influence was their mutual love of nature. Turner says his ten-year marriage to Fonda prompted him to become more introspective. “She also opened my eyes to the serious issues affecting women around the world,” he says.
Turner greatly admires British businessman, adventurer, and fellow eco-philanthropist Richard Branson for using his fortune to help make the world better. One of Branson’s fondest memories of Turner is joining him at the Flying D Ranch in Montana and howling back and forth with wild wolves.
One of Turner’s closest friends is President Jimmy Carter. A Nobel Peace Prize recipient, international negotiator, and participant in Habitat For Humanity, Carter also shares Turner’s passion for fly fishing. Here, Turner interviews Carter for CNN.
Turner counts his $1 billion pledge to help enhance the peacemaking and humanitarian missions of the United Nations as “one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done. The world would be in much deeper trouble were it not for the UN.” Here, Turner joins Jens Stoltenberg, prime minister of Norway, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, and former US senator Timothy E. Wirth, who oversees the influential UN Foundation created with Turner’s gift.
“The possibility of an accidental or deliberate exchange of nuclear weapons, and the ever-present danger of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, are among the gravest threats facing humanity,” Turner says. Together with former US senator Sam Nunn, he created the Nuclear Threat Initiative, respected around the world, by both Democrats and Republicans, for helping to confront the looming menace of nuclear catastrophe.
A potent quartet of problem-solvers: former US senator Timothy E. Wirth, who heads the UN Foundation; Turner; Michael Finley, who oversees the Turner Foundation; and former US senator Sam Nunn, cofounder of the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
Together at the 4,878-acre Red Rock Ranch, Turner and Jane Fonda designed a cabin that spoke to their modest, rustic tastes. Forged of recycled wood and found stone, it’s not only a hub for fly fishing but a place where Turner invites world leaders to discuss global challenges. Todd WIlkinson
Off Turner’s back door at the Flying D Ranch rise the wild Spanish Peaks—one of the reasons he instantly fell in love with Montana a quarter century ago. The 113,000-acre Flying D is the largest tract of private land in the greater Yellowstone region, and home to all of the original native species that existed there at the end of the last Ice Age.
Even Turner has contended with the proliferation of natural gas exploration in America. Split estate laws allow others to develop resources beneath the ground he owns. By working with the energy company, however, natural gas development at Vermejo Park in New Mexico is viewed as a model for blending resource extraction with protection of natural values. Todd Wilkinson
Dustin Long, a biologist with the Turner Endangered Species Fund, holds a baby black-footed ferret in a captive breeding facility at Vermejo Park Ranch, a resource that provides critically endangered ferrets for release in the wild, on Turner ranches as well as elsewhere. Todd Wilkinson
With a herd of bison 55,000 strong and spread across six western states, Turner is the largest bison rancher in history, innovatively using the animals as ecological tools to restore healthy landscapes and turn a profit.
Desert bighorn sheep, released in New Mexico’s Fra Cristobal Mountains, have established Turner’s sprawling Armendaris Ranch as a robust foothold for the iconic animals. The bighorn herd was restored to such a level that it is now providing high-value, recreational hunting opportunities.
Turner’s youngest son, Beau, shares his father’s passion for the outdoors. Making Here, at Avalon Plantation near Tallahassee, he oversees a controlled burn, an Todd Wilkinson
As seasoned field men, the late Joe Truett (above, in white baseball cap) and Kevin Honness (with swift fox) played instrumental roles in helping the Turner Endangered Species Fund pioneer new approaches to wildlife conservation on private land. They would find pleasure knowing their work outlasted them. Todd Wilkinson
Giving wild wolves a home on his properties has long been a Turner dream. Here, he peers through a spotting scope at members of the Beartrap Pack that have taken up residence on the Flying D Ranch in Montana, living among bison and elk herds. Since December 2002, with twenty-plus members, the Beartrap Pack has been one of the largest in North America.
Turner is undertaking some of the most ambitious aquatic conservation programs in America, aimed at nurturing native fish and restoring riparian ecosystems. Both westslope and Rio Grande cutthroat trout have been given new homes on Turner ranches. Costilla Creek, a tributary of the Rio Grande, is one stretch among the more than 150 river miles that have been healed in several states.
Every year in Denver, Turner brings the Atlanta management staff of Turner Enterprises, Inc., together with TEI management staff and ranch managers from the West. The group, which he affectionately calls “my posse,” is treated as an extension of his family. It’s a diverse mix. Pictured, front row (L to R): Magnus McCaffery (Turner Endangered Species Fund Senior Biologist), Mike Phillips (TESF Executive Director), Beau Turner (TESF Chairman), Ted Turner, Rutherford Seydel (General Counsel and Turner’s son-in-law), Bill Shaw (VP Human Resources), David Withers (Director of Finance), Phillip Evans (VP Communications). Back row (L to R): Tom Waddell (Armendaris Ranch), Dave Dixon (Snowcrest Ranch), Alan Oborny (Blue Creek Ranch), Dusty Hepper (McGinley Ranch), Dr. Dave Hunter (TEI Veterinarian), Josh Marks (Legal Counsel), John Hansen (Assistant General Manger), Bob Biebel (TEI CFO), Gus Holm (Asst .Manager Vermejo Park Ranch), Keith Yearout (Z Bar Ranch), Steve Dobrott (Ladder Ranch), Tom Bragg (Deer Creek Ranch), Mark Kossler (Manager Vermejo Park Ranch), Terry Purdum (Spikebox Ranch), Neil Lawson (Turner Ranches Wildlife Director), Carter Kruse (TESF Senior Fishery Biologist), Johnny Covey (Fawn Lake Ranch), Danny Johnson (Flying D Ranch), Aaron Paulson (Red Rock Ranch), Tom LeFaive (Bad River Ranch), Russ Miller (VP/General Manager of western ranches). Not pictured: Taylor Glover (TEI CEO), John Hurd (Bluestem Ranch), and Jack Shell (Bar None Ranch).
Ladder Ranch Manager Steve Dobrott holds a bolson tortoise hatchling that will
be given a home on Turner lands. The bolson has heretofore been extinct in the US for over ten thousand years. Todd Wilkinson
These two bumper stickers adorn many of Ted Turner’s vehicles. Todd Wilkinson
Turner says that having a relationship with the land has given him and his staff a profound sense of humility. Here, Turner’s Vice President/General Manager of western ranches Russ Miller and assistant GM John Hansen walk through the sea of open space at a bison ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska.
The front lawn of Turner’s Estancia La Primavera along the Rio Traful in Argentina’s Patagonia region has an exceptional, late-afternoon view of the mountains. Todd Wilkinson