WSJ: The founder of CNN, who died Wednesday at age 87, owned roughly 2 million acres of land in at least six U.S. states, making him the fourth-largest landowner in the country, according to the Land Report magazine, which ranks land ownership. A conservationist, Turner owned and operated 13 ranches that were home to roughly 45,000 bison, Turner Enterprises said.

Turner’s conservation efforts and eco-tourism initiatives distinguished him from other major land owners, said Eric O’Keefe, editor of the Land Report. “There are lots of people who own lots of acreage,” he said, but what set Turner apart was “what he did in terms of making his land resilient and productive.”

Turner was also a pioneer, O’Keefe said, purchasing large amounts of land in Montana and New Mexico long before others did so, and before land values in those places skyrocketed. He put much of the land into conservation.

O’Keefe said it is difficult to determine the value of Turner’s portfolio, but he noted that Turner purchased the roughly 558,000-acre Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico for around $100 million; today the property is worth more than $500 million.