Ladder Tortugarium: A sanctuary for hybrid tortoises In 2019, volunteers and staff from several Turner entities (Turner Endangered Species Fund (TESF), Ted Turner Reserves (TTR), and the Ladder Ranch) teamed up to build two ~1 acre tortoise holding pens at Ladder...

The critically endangered Bolson tortoise is the largest North American land reptile. Its closest living relative is the gopher tortoise of the southeastern US, while the desert tortoises of the desert southwest are more distant cousins. Bolson tortoises occupied much...

Someday the COVID-19 pandemic will be history.  When it fades from daily consideration, imperiled species restoration will continue to stand as evidence of our ability to repair the natural world.  Such reparations buoy faith in our ability to heal an...

University of Nebraska-Kearney graduate student Ashley Forrester with a Blanding's turtle on Turner Sandhills Ranches.  The Nebraska Sandhills are a stronghold for the turtle species that are declining elsewhere across its range.  Ashley is looking to expand...

On November 5, two adult Mexican wolves and four pups were released in suitable habitat near Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico. Prior to release the wolves had been removed from the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona and placed for a few months at the...

A 2020 prescribed fire treatment on the mixed grass prairie at our Z Bar Ranch in Kansas controls eastern redcedar encroachment and restores prairie health for lesser prairie chickens.

A threatened Chiricahua leopard frog sunning its self on an artificial island in a stock tank. Stock tanks on the Ladder Ranch not only provide water for livestock and wildlife but are great refugia for frogs.

Ladder Tortugarium: A sanctuary for hybrid tortoises In 2019, volunteers and staff from several Turner entities (Turner Endangered Species Fund (TESF), Ted Turner Reserves (TTR), and the Ladder Ranch) teamed up to build two ~1 acre tortoise holding pens at Ladder...

The critically endangered Bolson tortoise is the largest North American land reptile. Its closest living relative is the gopher tortoise of the southeastern US, while the desert tortoises of the desert southwest are more distant cousins. Bolson tortoises occupied much...

Someday the COVID-19 pandemic will be history.  When it fades from daily consideration, imperiled species restoration will continue to stand as evidence of our ability to repair the natural world.  Such reparations buoy faith in our ability to heal an...

University of Nebraska-Kearney graduate student Ashley Forrester with a Blanding's turtle on Turner Sandhills Ranches.  The Nebraska Sandhills are a stronghold for the turtle species that are declining elsewhere across its range.  Ashley is looking to expand...

On November 5, two adult Mexican wolves and four pups were released in suitable habitat near Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico. Prior to release the wolves had been removed from the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona and placed for a few months at the...

A 2020 prescribed fire treatment on the mixed grass prairie at our Z Bar Ranch in Kansas controls eastern redcedar encroachment and restores prairie health for lesser prairie chickens.

A threatened Chiricahua leopard frog sunning its self on an artificial island in a stock tank. Stock tanks on the Ladder Ranch not only provide water for livestock and wildlife but are great refugia for frogs.