The rancher who loves wolves

A rare story of coexistence in the American West — where one rancher proves that raising livestock and protecting wolves, prairie dogs, and the land itself are not mutually exclusive.

Photo by Mathias Reding on Unsplash

There is a rancher in the American West who loves wolves. He coexists with wolves on his ranches, and indeed has cooperated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce wolves on his own ranch properties. He sponsors research into the ecology of wolves. Wolves occasionally take his livestock, yet he does not shoot them, trap them, or poison them. Elk populations on his ranches are so healthy and abundant on his ranches that they are a sought-after destination for elk hunters. He does not call USDA Wildlife Services or a state agricultural agency to have wolves gunned down from a helicopter. He takes pride in the fact that having wolves on his ranch is a sign of ecological health.

There is a rancher whose commitment to the health of the land runs deeper than dishonest talking points. Who doesn’t overstock the range, destroying the native bunchgrasses and inviting the invasion of flammable cheatgrass that ruins wildlife habitat. Who raises native bison, animals that evolved with the native ecosystems of the American West, instead of invasive cattle or sheep. Bison that range onto steep slopes and graze far from water, spreading their herbivory more gently across the land instead of concentrating along streambanks and springs, grinding these ecological oases to dust.

Photo by Goutham Ganesh Sivanandam on Unsplash

There is a rancher who doesn’t persecute prairie dogs. Who doesn’t allow the bloodsport of shooting at defenseless colonies, doesn’t spread poisoned oats, doesn’t allow them to be gassed in their subterranean homes. Who offers a refuge for prairie dogs live-trapped from other lands, helping to re-establish on his private ranchlands this beating heart of the grassland ecosystem that depends on prairie dogs to thrive. Who can enjoy the sight of burrowing owls, mountain plovers, and swift foxes on his properties, native species that depend on prairie dogs for habitat or food. Whose prairie dog colonies have hosted reintroductions of the black-footed ferret, the rarest land mammal in North America, and entirely dependent on prairie dogs to survive.

There is a rancher who runs a farm-to-table operation with his livestock, bypassing the water contamination and disgusting conditions of feedlots, where stock wallow hock-deep in their own feces as they are fattened for the slaughterhouse. Who bypasses the meatpacking monopolies with their price-fixing and consumer-gouging practices. Who provides a healthier product for his customers than what’s available at the local grocery store. More and more people are opting out of meat consumption, of course, but for those who continue as omnivores, bison provide healthier food than the most organic cattle operation.

There is a rancher who sets aside a portion of his profits to fund environmental organizations. Whose generosity has helped a broad array of environmental and conservation groups across the West, improving the management of our public lands, and brought better outcomes for native wildlife. Who started his own nonprofit that has helped with wolf reintroductions, prairie dog conservation, and many other critical restoration efforts.

There is a rancher who, at one time, was once the largest private landowner in the United States. He is still in the top ten, owning more than two million acres of private property.

This rancher is a shining example of how ranching can actually be regenerative. Sustainable. Ecologically responsible. That ranching can be accomplished on private lands without wiping out the natural world, that food production can align with nature rather than destroy it. That livestock operations need not trash the land, decimate native wildlife, and poison native wildflowers, as most ranchers do.

Photo by Margaret Polinder on Unsplash

The rancher who has accomplished these exemplary achievements is one man, Ted Turner. His Ladder Ranch in New Mexico is a site for Mexican wolf reintroduction, and his Flying D outside Bozeman is a site for gray wolf recovery. His Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico hosted ferret reintroduction. His Ted’s Montana Grill restaurants can be found across a dozen states. And he is a far better rancher than the overwhelming majority of livestock producers across the West, who have a lot to learn.

Western Watersheds Project is the nation’s leading organization watchdogging the health of public lands, established to solve the great many ecological problems caused by the livestock industry. We document the environmental devastation wrought by cattle and sheep across western public lands, and fight on behalf of wild things persecuted by the greed and corruption of an industrial juggernaut that puts profits above all else. In a land that celebrates the colonizer, the usurper, the destroyer, our organization is dedicated to the proposition that humanity can coexist with nature instead of throttling it. And we salute the decades of successful efforts of one of America’s leading – and one of the only – regenerative ranchers.

Thank you for showing the rest of the industry how it’s done, Ted Turner.

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Erik Molvar is the executive director of Western Watersheds Project. emolvar@westernwatersheds.org