CNN founder, 87, made state a model for private land conservation, NM leaders say
New Mexico conservationists and elected officials on Wednesday issued statements celebrating the conservation legacy of Ted Turner, who was once New Mexico’s largest landowner and made the state a model of private land conservation.
Turner, 87, died early Wednesday morning, according to a statement from his family. Turner’s estate owns more than 1 million acres across four sprawling ranches in northern and southern New Mexico. His purchase of the Vermejo Ranch in 1996 established a precedent for how private benefactors can be conservation leaders and save endangered species, said Garrett VeneKlasen, director of New Mexico Wild, in a phone interview with Source NM on Wednesday.
“He was a New Mexico conservation icon,” VeneKlasen said. “As a landowner, he was one of the most exemplary landowners in terms of stewarding big landscapes and big chunks of habitat.”
VeneKlasen said Turner was instrumental in protecting species including the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, the Mexican gray wolf, the Bolson tortoise and the Chiricahua leopard frog. Jonathan Hayden, executive director of the New Mexico Land Conservancy, also said Turner’s efforts helped save the bighorn sheep, as well as the bats that used his Armendaris Ranch as a stop on their migratory path.
“All the bison reintroduction, too,” Hayden told Source NM on Wednesday. “That has been a huge kind of catalyst for thinking about how to reintroduce native species to an eco-region that was kind of long overlooked.”
New Mexico elected officials also publicly praised Turner’s impact and offered condolences to his family.
“His Vermejo Ranch became one of the great conservation success stories in American history: half a million acres restored from coal mining and industry back to thriving wilderness, with bison, pronghorn, and clean streams to prove it,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a post to social media Wednesday. “New Mexico is better for what Ted left behind.”
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) called Turner the “real-life Captain Planet” in a statement to social media on Wednesday. “I will miss his leadership, and my thoughts are with his family and friends,” he wrote.
Turner founded the news network CNN and, later in life, turned his attention to philanthropy and conservation. After Vermejo, Turner increased his holdings across the West, becoming one of the country’s biggest landowners with more than 2 million acres across eight Western states.
“He was also a man known for his no-holds-barred delivery, endearing sense of humor, and undying loyalty to those around him,” according to the statement from his family Wednesday.
