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Why It Matters
A Montana district court ruling has temporarily halted the state’s effort to block new bison grazing permits on state trust land, a decision that carries implications for conservation efforts and land-use policy across the intermountain West. The preliminary injunction granted to American Prairie, a major nonprofit conservation organization, underscores tensions between state wildlife management authority and federal land-use decisions that affect operations stretching across Montana and into neighboring regions.
What Happened
Lewis and Clark District Court Judge Christopher Abbott granted a preliminary injunction on June 26, temporarily blocking a directive issued by the Montana Land Board that had prohibited new or pending bison grazing approvals on state trust land. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by American Prairie, which has been grazing bison on state-leased parcels since 2009.
The Land Board motion, approved unanimously and proposed by Commissioner of Securities and Insurance James Brown, had directed the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to develop new rulemaking addressing the absence of bison from existing grazing provisions. The directive effectively imposed a moratorium on approving any new or pending bison requests on state property.
American Prairie’s legal challenge followed a February letter to DNRC stating the organization intended to graze bison on one of its leased parcels. Two weeks later, the Land Board took action to block such grazing without public notice or a meaningful opportunity for public comment, according to American Prairie’s legal filings.
Matt Cochenour, attorney for American Prairie, stated that “the Land Board’s decision-making process must follow the law. With this opinion, the district court removed the clearly unlawful roadblock that the Land Board implemented without public notice or a meaningful opportunity for public participation.”
Brown disputed the court’s reasoning, saying “It’s curious to me how a judge can determine that a directive to the DNRC to do rulemaking is in itself rulemaking.”
By the Numbers
American Prairie manages more than half a million acres through private holdings and state leases. The organization’s herd consists of around 940 bison, which have grazed on state trust land since 2009. American Prairie filed applications in 2019 for authorization to use additional state parcels for bison grazing.
The dispute has been complicated by federal action. The Bureau of Land Management revoked seven of American Prairie’s bison-grazing leases earlier this year, citing provisions in the Taylor Grazing Act that limit authorized animals to those used for “production-oriented purposes.” The organization faces a September deadline to remove its herds from that federal land.
Zoom Out
The dispute reflects a broader conflict over how bison—traditionally absent from ranching operations focused on cattle—fit into rangeland management frameworks designed decades ago. Federal and state land-use rules were written with livestock production in mind, creating friction when conservation organizations use bison grazing as an ecological management tool on public lands.
American Prairie has pursued multiple legal avenues to protect its grazing rights. In a separate case, the organization sued the state over its refusal to conduct environmental review and issue a grazing lease. A March court ruling ordered DNRC to begin an environmental review process, though that decision is currently under appeal to the Montana Supreme Court.
The situation has also drawn attention from Montana’s political leadership. Governor Greg Gianforte, Attorney General Austin Knudsen, and the state’s federal delegation appealed to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum over the BLM’s lease revocations. American Prairie has separately appealed the BLM ruling itself.
What’s Next
The preliminary injunction keeps the state’s bison grazing moratorium blocked while the underlying case proceeds. The Land Board may seek to appeal the district court ruling, and the Montana Supreme Court’s decision on the separate environmental review case could shape how future grazing authorization decisions are handled.
American Prairie must also resolve the federal land issue, with the September deadline for removing bison from BLM-revoked leases approaching. The outcome of that dispute will determine how much of the organization’s current grazing footprint can be maintained on federal property.
For Idaho and broader regional agriculture, land-use decisions in Montana often signal direction for neighboring states grappling with similar questions about conservation easements, commodity markets, and rangeland management policy. The case highlights how agricultural policy at federal and state levels continues to shift in ways affecting ranchers and conservation groups across the West.
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