Conservation groups are appealing the Trump administration’s decision to evict 940 bison from public lands in Montana, accusing the Interior Department of making “a politically motivated reversal” that had allowed the animals to graze on federal acreage.
The Western Watersheds Project on Monday filed its appeal of a May decision to revoke grazing permits for bison owned by the Montana-based conservation group American Prairie, which had been allowed to graze their animals on seven federal allotments spanning 63,000 acres.
“BLM’s new interpretation has no basis in law and contradicts its own findings,” said Pete Frost, a Western Environmental Law Center attorney who is representing Western Watersheds. “BLM reversed itself due to politics, not the law, nor the need to restore prairie grasslands.”
The Bureau of Land Management asserted the animals failed to meet “production‑oriented purposes” under federal law, and that the Biden administration should not have issued contracts in 2022. The state of Montana had been critical of the American Prairie program for years, saying it improperly took grazing land out of agricultural production.
