Western Environmental Law Center

Western Watersheds Project, represented by the Western Environmental Law Center, on Wednesday filed a complaint in Montana Federal District Court against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for revoking American Prairie’s permits to graze bison on public lands in Montana. Revoking the permits conflicts with the plain language of controlling laws, and contradicts BLM’s own prior decisions.

In 2022, after completing a multi-year review finding that bison grazing is permissible on public lands and in fact would likely be better for prairie grasslands than cattle, BLM authorized American Prairie to graze bison on allotments. However, in a politically motivated reversal, over the course of just five months in 2026, BLM rescinded the bison permits under a brand new theory that a livestock owner must be a “production-oriented” entity, and did so without defining what that means.

“BLM’s new interpretation has no basis in law and contradicts its own findings,” said Pete Frost, attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “BLM reversed itself due to politics, not the law, nor the need to restore prairie grasslands.”

In fact, BLM’s 2026 decision directly contradicts its position in 2022, that reading a “production” requirement into federal law “would read words and requirements” into the law that don’t exist. Instead, at that time, BLM stated it can “issue permits to any stock owner.”

The BLM’s 2022 decision found that privately-owned bison are domestic livestock under the Taylor Grazing Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and the Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act—a conclusion consistent with Montana state law, which treats American Prairie’s bison herd as “livestock,” by levying taxes and imposing disease testing requirements. Indeed, the U.S. Forest Service defines livestock under the Taylor Grazing Act as “…animals of any kind kept or raised for [any] use or pleasure.”

American Prairie has provided thousands of pounds of bison meat to area food banks and supplies bison to other entities for food, commercial, and cultural purposes.

“The Trump administration is kicking our national mammal off of public lands, and trying to replace bison—an ecological keystone of prairie ecosystems—with cattle which causes a huge amount of ecological damage,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project. “We’re heading to court to support the replacement of unnatural herds of cattle with the natural large herbivore of the Plains, the American bison. While we prefer bison to be managed as wild, free-ranging conservation herds, like American Prairie’s bison, if you’re going to raise an animal as livestock, bison are so much more ecologically appropriate than cattle that it would be a beneficial idea to convert all cattle grazing permits West-wide to bison.”

The political origins of the agency’s reversal are clear. As reported by Public Domain, the 2022 bison grazing decision was appealed by ranching groups represented by Karen Budd-Falen—now one of the highest ranking officials at the Department of Interior. Further, Sec. Burgum personally intervened to direct BLM to reconsider, ultimately producing the outcome Budd-Falen’s former clients sought.

Western Environmental Law Center and Western Watersheds Project pursued all available administrative remedies, and filed suit as a last resort to prevent the unlawful eviction of bison from these public lands.

Contacts:
Pete Frost, Western Environmental Law Center, 541-543-0018, frost@westernlaw.org
Erik Molvar, Western Watersheds Project, 307-399-7910, emolvar@westernwatersheds.org

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