Reviews in 2022

Conserving America’s Wildlands: The Vision of Ted Turner is a finalist in the 2023 High Plains Book Awards Art & Photography category. Rhett Turner’s photographs are a testimony to his father’s expansive holdings, and to his quest to restore the natural order—to a deliberate, sustainable habitat.

Rhett began his career as a photojournalist and an editor at CNN’s Tokyo news bureau. He is also an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. Essay contributor for the book, Todd Wilkinson, is a long-time environmental journalist and author. He is the western correspondent for National Geographic and the Guardian. This collaboration created a visually stunning and compelling call to “Mother Nature, who is the wise sage billions of years old, but who drinks daily from the fountain of youth.” These photographs document that the world will heal if we allow it to.

Ted Turner is a man used to winning whether it be CNN, the American Cup or accumulating the largest private bison herd in the world.

According to Rhett, Turner wanted bison, lots of them, and thus, needed land – lots of it. Turner enterprises currently owns fourteen ranches, three of which are in Montana, totaling over two million acres which provides range for 50,000 bison. He sees them as a keystone species. Over 40% of the land is held in conservation easements.

Before reading this book, I thought Ted Turner’s greatest accomplishment was innovation, not restoration. Turns out, Ted is a visionary whose motto is “Save Everything.” Becoming rich by the late 1980s, he turned to conservation, restoring land that had been “used up” in part by lax grazing practices. Witnessing ranches that were barren of its natural inhabitants, Turner felt that private individuals could react quicker than government agencies. Jacques Cousteau contributed to his understanding of the natural world. Jimmy Carter, our 39th president, wrote the foreword to this book.

Over a lifetime, Ted Turner has dedicated these two million private acres to a globally unparalleled project to reintroduce and restore the species that once roamed freely there. From this beginning, his holdings have grown to be refuges of biodiversity for some of the most endangered species in the world, from migratory birds to fish and insects, and from wolves to grizzly bears.

Photographs guide us through stunning landscapes of sun, water, forest, and farms. Beaver, gophers, and swans, and, of course, what we in Montana call “buffalo” remind us of what was, and now can still be. It’s a journey that is both enlightening and inspiring regardless of how many acres you may have. Start with your backyard. Encourage birds and bees. Be like Ted!

Shari Nault is an author and the president of the High Plains Book Awards.