How green is his wallet? Environmental groups refuse to criticize the ranching and land-management practices of billionaire Ted Turner because his foundation gives millions to their cause

Insight on the News, Feb 25, 2002 by Audrey Hudson

More recently, in December 2001, a judge blocked a U.S. Forest Service plan to salvage timber from destructive wildfires in 2000 even as a Turner ranch began salvaging timber burned by the same fires. The projects are different because one was on private property and the other on public property, says Miller. Turner's project, he adds, is endorsed by the Nature Conservancy.

"Basically, we recognize that forest products are necessary to livelihoods in the United States and necessary to the economy," Miller says. "What we have set about doing is to harvest wood products in a sustainable manner, and we are pretty proud in the sustainable way we do our harvest."

Not all environmental groups are willing to side with their high-powered benefactor. In 1999, a group called New West Research revealed that the federal government was asked to kill predators on Turner's 320,000-acre Ladder Ranch in southern New Mexico. The agreement called for "aerial gunning" of wild dogs at the Turner ranch even as the Turner Endangered Species Fund touted a program to reintroduce the rare Mexican wolf. The latter program put Turner at odds with New Mexico neighbors who say the wolves threaten livestock.

Some in Montana and New Mexico say Turner picks and chooses among species to create a personal menagerie. Conservation programs to reintroduce rare and endangered species are conducted on 11 Turner ranches. The species include the Mexican gray wolf, California condor, Rio Grande chub, Chiricahua leopard frog, bighorn sheep, aplomado falcon, black-tailed prairie dog, black-footed ferret, black bear, Mexican spotted owl and red-cockaded woodpecker.

"He brings endangered species onto his private property -- which is his own business -- but it does have an impact on his neighbors" says Caren Cowen, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association. "On the one hand he brings in all of these endangered species, but on the other hand they hunt on their ranches. The two don't meet in my mind very well. In addition, he gives a lot of money to radical environmentalists who are trying to put us out of business."

There's another side to the story, says Miller. "If environmental groups are not criticizing Turner's operations, it is because there is nothing to criticize," he says. "I can't refute criticism or ties to funding, but what we've tried to show is there is nothing to criticize."

AUDREY HUDSON WRITES FOR Insight's SISTER DAILY, THE WASHINGTON TIMES.