Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, joined by Montana’s federal delegation, is pressing the Department of the Interior to overturn a decision that allows the American Prairie (APR) to convert federal grazing permits for cattle into permits for conservation bison in Northcentral Montana.
In a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the officials emphasized their support for production agriculture and warned that APR’s efforts would undermine Montana’s rural economy and way of life.
“APR is dedicated to ‘re-wilded,’ free-roaming bison and converting Montana’s historic farms and ranches into the largest wildlife refuge in the continental United States,” they wrote. “For us, a decision in favor of APR will re-shape the entire landscape of our state. The effect of this change would remove immense swaths of land from production agriculture with far reaching implications and undermine the proud heritage of these small, agriculture-focused communities.”
They continue, “It also threatens the economic vitality of our most important industry, decreasing agricultural production revenue and directly impacting industries downstream that shape our overall economy. Once the damage is done, and these generational farms and ranches are gone, they cannot be brought back.”
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages livestock grazing on 155 million acres of public lands nationwide. Since 2017, APR has sought approval to switch cattle permits on several BLM allotments in Montana to allow bison grazing. Under the Biden Administration, BLM granted the requests, sparking lawsuits from the State of Montana, the Montana Stockgrowers Association, North and South Phillips County Grazing Districts and Montana Farm Bureau Federation. Those appeals are still awaiting resolution.
During a producer panel hosted by the Northern Ag Network, Governor Gianforte said the fight is about protecting rural Montana. “We fought the decision during the Biden administration to take public lands out of production agriculture in Montana,” he said. “If you don’t have farms or ranches, you don’t have kids in your schools, you don’t have fertilizer being sold, you don’t have tractors being sold. Production agriculture is the heart of these rural communities.”
He argued that the BLM’s decision violated the Taylor Grazing Act.
“The Taylor grazing act never contemplated this idea of grazing lands being used for anything but production agriculture, so that’s why we opposed it. We’ll continue to fight that,” said Gianforte.
Montana ranchers also welcomed the letter. Montana Stockgrowers Association Second Vice President Monty Lesh thanked the governor and delegation for taking a strong stance. “The Stockgrowers were one of the first groups that initiated a lawsuit against the BLM,” Lesh said. “We’ve been waiting for a long time. We were praying for a change in the administration. We got that and now it’s just a matter of time. The Secretary of Interior can really speed that along, but we thank you very much for the support.”
The letter was signed by Gianforte, Senator Steve Daines, Senator Tim Sheehy, Congressman Ryan Zinke, and Congressman Troy Downing.
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Gov Gianforte/Northern Ag Network
