On May 8, 2026, the Bureau of Land Management issued its final decision rescinding the bison grazing permits held by American Prairie, a conservation nonprofit, on seven allotments (six, by American Prairie's count) in Phillips County, Montana, a county with more square miles than Connecticut. The permits, approved by the BLM in 2022, cover roughly 63,000 acres of federal land where American Prairie grazes about 900 bison; the group says it first grazed bison on BLM leases in the mid-2000s. The decision reissued cattle-only permits and set September 30, 2026 as the deadline to remove the bison from the public land. It followed a proposed decision on January 16 and an order from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in December 2025 directing the BLM to reconsider.
The BLM's reasoning rests on the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. The agency concluded that the law allows grazing only by domestic livestock managed “primarily for production-oriented purposes,” and that American Prairie manages its bison “as wildlife used primarily for conservation and ecological restoration.” American Prairie says its bison are tagged and vaccinated, that it sends bison to Native American tribes to rebuild their herds, and that it donates meat to food pantries. The BLM said the decision does not affect tribal herds or treaty rights and that “the BLM is not evicting hundreds of bison from Montana,” since the herd can stay on American Prairie's private land.
CEO Alison Fox had called the proposal “an unprecedented reversal of BLM's own decision-making after more than 40 years of treating bison as eligible livestock under federal grazing law,” and said the decision “is not grounded in new impacts or new information.” American Prairie's attorney, Mary Cochenour, called the final decision “an all-out attack on conservation.” The BLM said it received 34 other protest letters, many from tribal governments and organizations. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, Attorney General Austin Knudsen (who had challenged the permits since 2021), Rep. Ryan Zinke, Sen. Steve Daines and the Montana Stockgrowers Association praised the decision. Gianforte said, “We must ensure that public lands remain accessible and productive, rather than being locked away for the vision of special interests.” Burgum has also spoken in support of selling federal lands, including grazing lands, to help pay down the national debt, The Daily Beast reported.
Update (October 2, 2026): After an administrative appeal was denied, American Prairie sued in federal court on August 4, and Western Watersheds Project filed a separate suit on August 5. On September 4, U.S. District Judge Brian Morris blocked the BLM from forcing the bison off by September 30, writing that “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.” Montana Free Press described the order as a temporary restraining order covering more than 300 bison on three allotments; NBC Montana described it as a preliminary injunction covering more than 900 bison. The order does not resolve the case. American Prairie had estimated that finding new pasture would cost about $405,000, and that getting rid of the animals would cost $739,800.
Correction (October 2, 2026): this entry said the BLM revoked the permits on May 4 and called them a “40-year” permit held by the “American Prairie Foundation.” The organization is American Prairie; the permits at issue were approved in 2022 (American Prairie says it has grazed bison on BLM land for about 20 years); the “40 years” in Alison Fox's statement referred to how long the BLM had treated bison as eligible livestock; and the BLM proposed the cancellation on January 16 and issued its final decision on May 8, so the date has been corrected. The title's reference to “tribal partner lands” was wrong: the allotments are federal BLM land, and the BLM says tribal herds are unaffected. Unsourced claims that the national debt crossed 100% of GDP in March, a quote attributed to a tribal spokesperson, and a comparison to the Las Playas intaglio destruction have been removed.