Two conservation organizations have filed separate federal lawsuits challenging a Bureau of Land Management decision to cancel six grazing permits held by American Prairie in eastern Montana, setting up a legal showdown over whether bison qualify as livestock under a longstanding federal grazing law.
Background
American Prairie, a conservation organization that manages land in eastern Montana, has grazed a herd of more than 900 bison on federal land for over two decades. The organization owns and leases acreage in the region and has built a program around bison-centered land restoration, including an annual public harvest that produced 75,000 pounds of bison meat and regular contributions of bison to tribal food sovereignty programs.
The dispute centers on a new BLM interpretation of the Taylor Grazing Act, which the agency is now reading to require that livestock grazing on federal land be “production-oriented.” The Trump administration’s Department of Interior began reviewing American Prairie’s federal leases late last year, and in May the BLM canceled six permits covering more than 60,000 acres.
The Lawsuits
American Prairie filed suit on August 4, seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to halt the permit cancellations. The following day, Western Watersheds Project and the Western Environmental Law Center filed their own separate challenge to the BLM action.
The stakes for American Prairie are immediate. The organization faces a September 30 deadline to remove its bison herd from federal land and estimates it would need to cull at least 300 animals to comply if no court relief is granted.
American Prairie CEO Alison Fox defended the organization’s track record, telling the Daily Montanan, “For more than 20 years, we’ve demonstrated that bison can be responsibly managed on public lands while improving the health of Montana’s prairie.”
Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, framed the dispute in sharper terms, arguing in a statement to the Daily Montanan that “the Trump administration is kicking our national mammal off of public lands, and trying to replace bison with cattle, which causes ecological damage.”
Prior Review and Separate Litigation
The federal cancellations come despite a substantial prior agency record on bison grazing in the area. In 2022, the BLM completed a 180-page environmental analysis covering five new and two existing bison grazing permits for American Prairie operations — a process that appeared to validate the practice under earlier agency interpretations.
American Prairie also recently secured a preliminary injunction in a separate case before the Montana State Land Board, a partial legal win that has not resolved the federal permit dispute at the center of the new lawsuits.
What’s Next
The immediate legal question is whether a federal court will grant American Prairie’s request for temporary relief before the September 30 removal deadline. If the injunction is denied, the organization faces the practical necessity of reducing its herd by at least 300 animals — a significant blow to a program built over more than two decades.
The broader policy question — whether the Taylor Grazing Act’s “production-oriented” requirement bars non-commercial bison grazing on federal land — could have implications beyond Montana, touching how conservation-oriented grazing operations interact with BLM permitting across the West.
American Prairie’s case carries additional political weight in Montana, where the organization’s land consolidation efforts in the eastern part of the state have long drawn scrutiny from ranching communities and state lawmakers concerned about private conservation groups acquiring influence over large swaths of prairie. The administration’s move to cancel the permits, while cheered by some in those circles, now faces a judicial test that could take months to resolve.
