GALLATIN GATEWAY (AP) -- Ted Turner says things are getting better in the world, but they aren't good enough yet. So he's aiming to fix a few.

Compared to a decade ago, fewer people are living in utter poverty.

He wants to cut that number ever more. Free trade among nations will help do that, he says, so he's trying to get his fellow Democrats to understand that.

And while he sees global warming as a growing risk, more people are aware of it, partly because of the environmental groups he funds.

''You're talking about a lot of people who are upset about it,'' Turner said in a recent interview at his Flying D Ranch. ''And I think we're going to make them take a swing and try to do something about it.''

Through his philanthropy and activism, Turner, at 69, is working on hunger, malaria, global warming, red cockaded woodpeckers, nuclear annihilation and the volunteer fire department at Alder. Plus he's writing a book, skiing at Big Sky and hoping to hear the howl of a wild wolf before he dies.

Russia and the United States each have about 10,000 nuclear weapons aimed at each other.

''And George Bush has the button,'' Turner said, his pencil-thin mustache twitching a little.

So he and Sam Nunn, a former U.S. Senator from Georgia, have formed the Nuclear Threat Initiative, with the goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

Many plants and animals around the world face possible extinction.

So he created the Turner Endangered Species Fund, the only such private group in the world, and it's headquartered in Bozeman.

He also gave $1 billion to the United Nations Foundation, which is working on population control, women's health, disease eradication and host of other issues. And after years of mocking Christianity, he recently gave $200 million to church groups fighting Third World measles.

He owns 2 million acres across the country, mostly in the West. Much of it is environmentally sensitive, most of it is already under conservation easement, and the rest will be protected upon his death.

He'd do it now, he said, but his philanthropy already exceeds his income, so he can't get any more income tax breaks by donating the easements now. He'll let his estate take the tax advantages later.

Not that he's planning on checking out any time soon. Ask him if he's now retired and you'll get a hoot of derision.

''Hell, no!'' he cried. ''I'm opening a restaurant downtown (in Bozeman). I'm in the restaurant business now. I'm working my ass off. I'll never retire.''

Meet Ted Turner, world citizen and part-time resident of the 120,000-acre Flying D. Though it's one of the biggest ranches in Montana, it comprises only 5 percent of his real estate holdings.

He's not your average billionaire.

And not your average buffalo rancher either.

Selling steaks

Turner is best known in this part of the world as an apostle of the bison, both for its low impacts on the land and its healthful benefits on the table.

His newest venture in the bison business is a chain of 55 Ted's Montana Grill restaurants, places that have an old-West décor but a new-West focus on environmental responsibility. ''Eat Great, Do Good,'' is the chain's motto. The grills, which specialize in bison meat, serve environmental lessons along with meals. (The newest grill is scheduled to open in June in Bozeman's Baxter Hotel.)

When he first entered the bison business, here at the Flying D just a few miles south of Bozeman, he infuriated the cattle industry with disparaging remarks about the environmental impacts of cows on the landscape.

He doesn't do that any more.

''I've mellowed a lot,'' he said. ''I want to be friends with the beef industry. We serve beef at Ted's Montana Grill. You big betchum. I don't think I've said anything bad about cows in 20 years.''

While biting his tongue about cows, he also became the world's biggest player in the bison business, and raised them on ranches ''spread over, what, eight states? I'd have to count them up,'' he said.

When Turner bought his first bison 20 years ago, there were only about 70,000 of them in the United States. Today, there are 300,000, and nearly 50,000 of them belong to him. These days, after a few years in the doldrums, the bison business is thriving again, thanks in large part to his restaurant chain, which helped make bison meat more mainstream.

''They provide a good job of providing a good quality first bite of bison,'' said Jim Matheson, assistant director of the National Bison Association.

These days, the industry is having a hard time keeping up with demand.

Turner likes bison because they're easier on the land when they're alive and they're better for you -- more protein and less fat -- on a dinner plate.

And that fits right in with Turner's view of the world: take it easy on the environment and keep people healthy.

He's got his work cut out for him.

Where the money goes

Right now, he's funding projects to fight measles in Africa, protect wolves in North America, and provide access to birth control in overcrowded Third World countries. He gives money to churches, schools and museums. He gives grants to government agencies, soccer leagues and Scout troops. And he helps fund scores of environmental groups and projects in Montana and around the United States.

''I've given away, or invested in the future of humanity, something like $1.5 billion in the last 10, 12 years,'' he said.

His biggest gift was to the United Nations Foundation, which handles most of his international giving.

His Montana philanthropy, granted through The Turner Foundation, amounted to $1.15 million in 2007, a sum that included $462,000 to the Turner Endangered Species Fund. Of the remaining $653,000, two-thirds went to environmental groups or land trusts, and most of the rest went to educational and children's organizations, like Youth Initiative in Bozeman and Dillon, and the Helena Education Association. Even the Alder Volunteer Fire Department, near one of his three Montana ranches, got $10,000.

He'd be even more generous, he said, if he hadn't taken such a beating in the merger between Cable News Network, the company he founded, and America Online.

''On the AOL deal I lost 80 percent of what I had,'' Turner said. ''If I hadn't done that, I'd have been giving more away.''

Not that he's hurting. Forbes Magazine estimates his wealth at $2.3 billion.

Protecting the land

Now nearly 70, Turner remains vigorous, ebullient and passionate about guarding the environment, protecting humanity from its own excesses and bad decisions. Nearly 20 years after the end of the Cold War, there are still too many nuclear missiles in the world. He wants to get rid of them.

''They say these things are safe, but bulls---! They are not safe,'' he said. ''Development will take 100 years to destroy the planet. But nuclear weapons ... can destroy it in an afternoon.''

Global warming, he said, could put parts of Florida under 40 feet of water, and send withering drought through the Great Plains.

''This is not going to be good for Montana, if it's true,'' he said. ''There's going to be a flood of rich people leaving south Florida and coming to Montana, because there's no place else for them to go.''

He admitted that he hasn't closely followed land-use changes in Montana.

''To be honest, when I come out here I spend most of my time on the ranch,'' he said, between sips of iced herbal tea, his two black Labradors vying for his attention. ''I come out here to relax and take it easy. I've been skiing at Big Sky now for over a week. But from where I am, I see development coming this way. I tell you, it's all around us. It's going to get more crowded around here.''

But it won't be coming to Turner's ranch, which includes most of the north end of the Madison Range, from the Madison River to the Gallatin River, from the U.S. Forest Service boundary to the Gallatin Valley floor. It's been protected for years by a conservation easement that bans development.

That's brought him some appreciation.

''Look what Turner has protected from development,'' said Gallatin County Commissioner Bill Murdock, who spends many of his working hours dealing with growth issues. ''That's land I don't have to worry about.''

''I think we ought to have zoning and laws to protect as much of the environment as we can get by with,'' Turner said, looking out his picture windows at the snow-covered Lee Metcalf Wilderness Area. ''I've protected all of it that I could.''

Someday, he said, some of his 13 ranches might become ''a national park or something.''

Spurring controversy

Environmentalism has been a lifelong passion for Turner. The Turner Endangered Species Fund works to restore creatures and the habitats they need around the nation, with much of the work occurring on Turner properties.

Here on the Flying D, his staff is working with state officials to restore westslope cutthroat trout to Cherry Creek, Cherry Lake and dozens of miles of tributaries. It's a 10-year project and it's been controversial, but he's sticking with it.

Bill Fairhurst, the former mayor of Three Forks, fought the Cherry Creek project in court and delayed it for five years. With others, he also fought Turner's plans for a land swap that eventually gave him thousands of acres of formerly state land inside the Flying D.

''There are pros and cons to Ted Turner,'' Fairhurst said.

He appreciates that Turner protects his land and has let some public hunters on it, but he's still sore about the poisoning of Cherry Creek and Cherry Lake, where nonnative trout have been replaced with westslope cutthroats.

''It was a beautiful fishery and I just hated to see it destroyed,'' Fairhurst said. ''Turner's going to do his thing. You can't stop him.''

Cherry Creek isn't the only controversial project Turner sponsors.

On one of his New Mexico ranches, crews help to re-establish the Mexican wolf and he provides a wolf management specialist who works with the state of Montana. His people restore red cockaded woodpecker habitat in Florida and preserve the Sand Hills country of Nebraska, where some neighbors are suspicious of his goals.

Turner said preserving species and big landscapes is important in a world where the human population is constantly expanding; it's more than tripled, from 2 billion to 6.5 billion in his lifetime, he noted. And 2 billion of them live in ''absolutely abominable circumstances.''

''That's where global warming comes in,'' he said. ''More people using more stuff.''

Accomplished life

Turner's list of accomplishments is astounding. When he was 24, his father committed suicide and Turner rebuilt his foundering billboard company. Then he founded CNN and TBS. He owned the Atlanta Braves for many years, took them to the World Series, and hosted the Goodwill Games with Russia, with the goal of ending the Cold War. He says the games helped, though they cost him $70 million.

''We ended up with the Goodwill Games and we did help bring it to an end,'' he said.

He skippered a sailboat that won the America's Cup, bought the MGM studios, was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1991 and has been the subject of eight books, with at least two more to come. He's planning to release an autobiography in November and is working with Bozeman author Todd Wilkinson on a biography.

After creating the world's largest TV station, he now says he worries about children spending too much time watching television and playing video games.

''We're going to make a real effort to get kids to come and camp out on our properties,'' he said.

He also sits on a committee that is trying to have the demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea -- an area filled with both wildlife and land mines -- designated a national park.

''That would be great,'' he said. ''Turn it into Yellowstone Park.''

He's working on a project to restore native guanacos, a relative of the camel, to South America, where he owns 120,000 acres in Argentina.

And he'd like to hear wolves howl on his ranch. He just missed them on his March visit here.

''I still hope I get to hear them before my time is up,'' he said.

One thing he doesn't plan to do is stop working.

''I was born working and I'm going to die working,'' he said.

The world still has lots of problems that need fixing. He says they're resolvable and he says he can help.

''It's all solvable,'' he said. ''I don't think I'm a wild-eyed optimist, but I think anything's possible. You've got to stick with it. That's the message I have for young people who are trying to figure out what to do with their lives. Find something worthwhile and stick with it.''