At 5:30 in the morning, three college students and two recent graduates climbed into two pick-up trucks outside their lodge on the Vermejo Reserve, a property in northern New Mexico. This mid-July morning, a dense fog had rolled in from the mountains surrounding home-base. The sky was still dark.

Bleary-eyed with steaming cups of coffee in hand, they set out with cameras, microphones, tripods, and a drone to document the biodiverse wilderness and report on the conservation projects of Ted Turner Reserves, the owner and operator of the Vermejo property.

Vermejo spans more than 550,000 acres near the Colorado border. Across this gigantic parcel of land, the ecosystems vary from shortgrass prairie to pinyon-juniper woodlands to alpine environments and more. Ted Turner, founder of CNN, former owner of the Braves and Hawks, co-founder of the Nuclear Threat Initiative and major donor to the UN Foundation — owns this property and many others like it across the United States.

His company, Turner Reserves, whose mission encompasses conservation, stewardship, and connecting guests with the natural world, was founded in 2019. 

Planet Forward previously partnered with Turner Reserves in 2022 to bring students to McGinley Ranch in Nebraska. Now, we’ve teamed up again to introduce students from our consortium to an even larger, more majestic, and ecologically rich environment.

Planet Forward Founding Director Frank Sesno and I were joined by five motivated, committed, and creative students from an applicant pool of nearly 30. Our students were Josette Chun, rising senior at Middlebury College, Andrew McCabe, rising senior at George Washington University, Kayla Smernoff, recent graduate of Howard University, Colton Young, rising junior at SUNY ESF, and Nicholas Aguirre Zafiro, recent graduate of George Washington University.

Following a detailed research period, these students were engaged in an intensive experiential learning process that tasked them to produce videos explaining and covering various conservation projects by Ted Turner Reserves.

From riparian ecosystem preservation, to bison management, to the reintroduction of Rio Grande cutthroat trout, and more — their stories will create a window for Planet Forward viewers into one of the most remote and highly managed natural spaces in the United States.

On that early morning with cameras in hand, we set off and were immediately confronted with the striking beauty that conserved spaces offer. At just before 6am, the sun peaked over the far range of mountains and a huge herd of elk were spotted through the mist. Bulls, does, and fawns were traversing the obscured terrain, milky dawn light bathing them in an otherworldly glow.

Confronted with an unexpected wildlife encounter, the students quickly lifted their lenses towards this chance meeting with the cycle of life on full display. Their training, preparation, and non-stop inquisitiveness placed them in that moment, ready and able to capture the beauty and bounty of an extraordinary place.

Experiences like these can be transformative and, true to the Turner Reserves mission, can cultivate a driving commitment to the natural world. The planning, programming, and teaching that went into this trip has become one of my greatest sources of pride throughout my work with Planet Forward and I can’t wait for you to see our students’ pieces. I can’t thank Frank Sesno enough for his work teaching and inspiring these students, nor the programming and leadership teams at Turner Reserves whose support and guidance has been invaluable.

These students left changed by what they saw and experienced, and we hope that by viewing their stories, you (our readers) also come away with renewed drive to protect wild lands.

Editor’s Note: This series was made possible with the generous support of Turner Reserves and contributions by the Turner family. All editorial content is published independently. 

Planet Forward’s Environmental Media Lab led this expedition to teach the power of visual storytelling in wild spaces to convey the beauty and bounty of our planet.