Court says American Prairie bison can stay for now

A federal judge has ruled American Prairie can keep grazing bison on three federal grazing allotments as a federal lawsuit plays out.

The decision by Judge Brian Morris blocks, for now, a Bureau of Land Management rule that would have removed 900 bison from three allotments where American Prairie, a nonprofit conservation organization, currently graze the bison. 

The lawsuit, filed by American Prairie against the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of the Interior, seeks to stop a rule from being implemented that would drastically shift how bison can be grazed in the United States. That lawsuit is still pending.

In May, the BLM canceled six of American Prairie’s permits, which comprised more than 60,000 acres, using a new interpretation of the federal Taylor Grazing Act requiring livestock be “production-oriented” in order to use federal land.

Montana’s all-Republican federal delegation, and its statewide Republican officials, have heavily opposed bison grazing on federal grazing land. 

Gov. Greg Gianforte and the delegation had asked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to take a look at the bison leases, saying the organization’s mission is at odds with the state’s economy, and said American Prairie’s bison removes the land from agricultural use.

Morris was not convinced that it was, pointing out about half of the bison American Prairie have produced have been bought. Those bison have been used to help start food sovereignty programs, increase herd size, and for hunting.

“No statutory language or judicial precedent exists that requires a livestock operation to focus exclusively on production and entirely ignore conservation, range improvement, preservation, or other values,” the court order reads.

The federal government and the state of Montana have also argued the bison were not true “livestock” and tried to redefine the legal meaning of the word. 

Using the definition of livestock in Black’s Law Dictionary, the order says, “Federal defendants make no argument that American Prairie’s bison herd fails to qualify as livestock under this definition,” and that such an argument would be “uncompelling.” 

The order declined to rule on three grazing allotments that American Prairie currently does not use for bison grazing, but had previously reached an agreement with BLM to use.

“Bison belong on this landscape, and today’s ruling gives them a chance to stay,” Alison Fox, CEO of American Prairie said in a press release. “For more than 20 years, our bison have grazed these lands under federal authorization and without grazing violations. The court recognized the concrete harm that removing them would cause, not just to our work, but to our Tribal partners and the broader effort to return bison to their native home.”

American Prairie also argued that if a previous Sept. 30 deadline for removal of the bison from the three allocations the bison currently graze on, there could also be significant concerns about long-term genetic diversity of their bison herd.

The Montana Attorney General’s Office declined to comment about the ruling when contacted on Friday.