Make Tech Future

The Billionaire Who Bought a Dead Ranch in Montana — And Let 4,500 Bison Take Over In 1989, billionaire Ted Turner bought 114,000 acres of exhausted Montana ranchland and made a decision that shocked the American West. He removed the cattle, tore down miles of fencing, and began replacing them with American bison, even as ranchers insisted the experiment would fail. More than three decades later, the Flying D Ranch has become one of the largest private wildlife restoration projects in North America. We explores the extraordinary transformation of the Flying D Ranch near Yellowstone National Park and Ted Turner's vision to restore the Great Plains ecosystem. By replacing cattle with American bison, restoring native prairie grasslands, removing internal fences, protecting the land through one of America's largest conservation easements, and allowing natural ecological processes to return, Turner helped rebuild one of the most complete wildlife ecosystems in the Lower 48 States. The …