Montana’s governor and state agencies filed a lawsuit this week to halt a new federal bison management plan in Yellowstone National Park that would allow herd sizes to expand.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana comes after months of disagreement between the state government and the National Park Service over the management of bison in the park spanning parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
In addition to allowing herd sizes to grow, the plan also prioritizes the transfer of bison to tribal lands as a means of population control. Bison are a keystone species of the Great Plains and play an important role in Native American traditions.
Montana, meanwhile, has advocated that the bison population to be set at 3,000, which was the level established in a bison management plan for Yellowstone National Park adopted in 2000. The state has pushed for limiting the population due to concern about the spread of brucellosis, an infection that can cause infertility and sterility in cattle.
