Want an opportunity to meet the top gun on The Land Report 100 on one of his many ranches? Now you can, thanks to a Montana fundraiser. Tickets to tour Ted Turner’s 119,000-acre Flying D Ranch are still available, and they’re going for $1,500. Proceeds go to the Greater Yellowstone Coalition; Turner is a board member.

Your $1,500 fee gets you a driving tour of the ranch from the nation’s largest landowner, cocktails on his back porch, and a dinner featuring ranch-raised bison. Turner has the world’s largest private herd of bison, which he raises on the Flying D and markets through his restaurant concept, Ted’s Montana Grill, with over 50 locations in 18 states.

At last report 10 of the 60 tickets remained.

Read more at:
“Enviro Group Plans Fundraiser at Turner Ranch,” Billings Gazette, June 5, 2009.

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Hawn is the chairman, president, and CEO of Attachmate, a Seattle-based company that specializes in IT. His impressive resume includes stints at McKinsey & Company and BMC, among others, and given his career one would think he would be a lucid decision maker.

His neighbors in Park County, Colorado, the Downares, know better. On March 19, he committed a crime that Judge Stephen Groome labeled “one of the most controversial cases this county has seen in a long time.” Hawn invited hunters to join him in a killing spree that left 32 stray bison that belonged to a longtime local ranching family dead and dying. Is it any wonder prosecutor Katherine O’Brien described the response as a “great community outcry.” Here’s the report from the Rocky Mountain News:

Hard, high snowdrifts and a broken fence allowed bison owned by the Downares to stray onto Hawn’s property during a three-month period. He had bought the property in the fall of 2007 to build his dream vacation home, O’Brien said.

When he was unable to keep the animals off his land, the frustrated Texan arranged to have some local men “take care” of the bison. When corralling them didn’t work, Hawn ordered the men to get rid of them any way they could. The men, who were not charged, let it be known in the area that they might soon have fresh bison meat to give to a church run by a local Indian tribe.

On the day of the killings, March 19, members of the Downare family actually ran into the group of “gleeful hunters,” who asked them if they were part of the bison-hunting party, O’Brien said. Hawn was among the men who shot the bison, O’Brien said.

In a plea agreement, the high-tech CEO pleaded guilty to one felony count of criminal mischief and guilty to one count of cruelty to animals, a misdemeanor. Upon sentencing in January, he faces a two-year deferred judgment on the felony count and up to 10 days in the Park County jail on the misdemeanor charge. The plea agreement also calls for 96 hours of public service.

Hawn also agreed to pay the Downare family nearly $84,000 for the loss of their bison, $4,000 to Park County in investigatory costs, and a total of $70,000 to seven Colorado animal protection organizations.

Be sure to scan the readers’ comments at the end of the article in the News.

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Much of the country faced a harsher than normal winter this year, and the Yellowstone area was no different. According to this report, 700 bison died as a result of starvation while 1,600 more were killed as a result of efforts to control brucellosis.

Montana’s cattlemen are at the center of the slaughter. Even the smallest trace of brucellosis could spell doom for the industry.

Montana has spent millions of dollars over the years to get brucellosis eradicated from our livestock,” said Martin Davis, who has a cattle ranch within roaming distance north of the park. “And to put that in jeopardy – no one wants that to happen.”

Control of the bison population is essential, Davis said.

“Bottom line is, there’s too many of them. They’ve got to be managed. They ran out of pasture. They’re eating themselves out of house and home.”

Obviously cattle ranchers in the area are interested in protecting their valuable invesment as well as herds belonging to fellow ranchers. But with brucellosis transfer so difficult to document, are the efforts overly protective? The program to bring the bison back has worked and herd numbers have been strong in recent years.

The article goes on to point out that private property and grazing rights are an issue as well. If a harsh winter forces bison to seek out other sources of food, bison will inevitably travel onto private land searching for grass.

So how do we balance preservation of this natural resource with protecting the rights of property owners and the cattle industry?

Weigh in using the comment form below.

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