Big Timber Daily Digest Friday, June 05, 2026

Ty's Take

Ted Turner's death this week closes a chapter on private conservation that won't come around again, not in this lifetime anyway. A man with enough money to think in generations instead of quarters bought up nearly two million acres across the West—including right here in Sweet Grass County—and decided the land mattered more than the development potential. You can argue about his methods, his politics, or whether billionaires should be the ones saving wild country in the first place, but the fact is those bison herds on the YO Ranch and the cottonwood corridors along the Yellowstone are still here because of him. That's the kind of legacy that gets harder to come by, especially when the pressure on Montana rangeland keeps climbing and younger folks with vision rarely get the resources to act on it. Whatever else gets written about the man, this much is certain: he changed the shape of what the West looks like now.

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Big Timber Pioneer

Todd Wilkinson: Ted Turner leaves a legacy of protected land in the West

Ted Turner's passing marks the end of an era for Western land conservation, as the media mogul spent decades acquiring and protecting vast stretches of open space across rural America. Turner's commitment to preserving millions of acres through his conservation efforts has left a lasting...

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