The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on Friday that it is revoking seven grazing permits in Phillips County that American Prairie had been using to sustain its herd of bison. The decision comes after a three-and-a-half-year battle between the Montana livestock industry, backed by Gov. G reg Gianforte and the Montana Department of Justice, and American Prairie, a conservation nonprofit working to restore the prairie ecosystem of north-central Montana. The Montana Stockgrowers Association cheered the news, describing it as a “win for public lands ranching in Montana.” “MSGA is thrilled to see this decision by the BLM to restore grazing allotments back to their intended usage for production livestock grazing,” MSGA President Lesley Robinson said in a Friday afternoon press release. “MSGA is proud to defend sound, lawful land management. This decision is an incredible win for public lands grazers, ranching families and rural communities across the West.” American Prairie called the decision a “troubling precedent” for those reliant on consistent, predictable federal land management decisions. “This decision is not grounded in new impacts or new information — it appears to be completely arbitrary and is unfair,” American Prairie CEO Ali Fox wrote in an emailed statement. “When federal agencies begin changing how the rules are applied after the process is complete, it undermines confidence in the system for everyone who relies on public lands. Montana livestock owners deserve clarity, fairness and decisions they can count on.” American Prairie’s statement also emphasized bison’s ecological significance to prairie ecosystems, describing it as “a relationship that has been extensively studied and well documented over time.” In its Jan. 16 letter to American Prairie signed by Sonya Germann, the State Director for the Bureau of Land Management’s Montana/Dakotas office, the Interior Department took issue with how American Prairie has characterized its herd of bison, estimated in 2024 at approximately 900 animals. American Prairie had been grazing bison on the leases in question for about three years as the high-profile case wound through the Interior Department’s Office of Hearings and Appeals, a quasi-judicial body that considers issues related to federally administered grazing permits. (American Prairie said in its statement to MTFP that it first received permission to graze bison on BLM land in 2005 and has “done so successfully for the past 20 years.”) In December, Trump administration Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the BLM to reconsider the grazing authorization approved by the Biden administration in 2022, arguing that the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act requires that grazing on publicly owned federal lands be “limited to cases where the animals to be grazed are domestic and will be used for production-oriented purposes.” That distinction was the justification BLM provided for its decision this week.  “There are multiple times wherein by the applicant’s own admissions it is clear that these are not managed for production-oriented purposes and so do not fall within the meaning of the terms livestock and domestic as those terms are used in the applicable statutory authorities,” Germann wrote in her 24-page decision letter Friday. “Reissuing cattle-only permits on allotments where bison or a combination of cattle and/or bison were previously authorized … ensures that the BLM is acting within the limits of its statutory authority.” In its 2022 record of decision approving American Prairie’s Montana bison grazing plan, the BLM noted that bison grazing is permitted on leases it administers in Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. “Though the proposal to allow domestic indigenous livestock grazing conflicts with views and opinions expressed among some users of public lands, such unfavorable views of the proposal itself do not constitute a scientific controversy, disagreement about the nature of effects, or provide evidence that the project is not in conformance to BLM’s statutory and regulatory requirements,” the agency wrote then. American Prairie, which aims to connect 3.2 million acres — “enough to support a healthy prairie ecosystem” — has amassed a vast collection of land holdings and leases to facilitate its rewilding and biodiversity-restoration vision since its founding in 2001. In late 2024, the nonprofit announced that recent large ranch purchases had helped it cross a notable threshold: between its private landholdings and federal grazing leases, it has assumed control over more than half a million acres. In recent years, the organization, previously titled the American Prairie Reserve, has garnered pushback from Republican politicians and neighboring livestock producers wary of the nonprofit’s substantial — and growing — influence on the cultural, land-ownership and property tax dynamics of central Montana. American Prairie critics, including the United Property Owners of Montana, have rallied support for their cause under a “Save the Cowboy” slogan. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and Gianforte, who have fought the 2022 decision, described the agency’s reversal this week as a victory for Montana agriculture. “Canceling the American Prairie Reserve’s bison grazing permit will help to protect the livestock industry and ranching communities in Northeastern Montana from the elitists trying to push them out,” Knudsen said in a statement.  American Prairie hinted in its Friday statement that a legal challenge to the decision in the federal court system might be coming, writing that it is “reviewing the decisions and determining its course of action.” The post Bureau of Land Management revokes American Prairie bison leases appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less