American Prairie has already been fighting the federal government over its bison grazing permits. Now, a separate fight over Montana state trust lands has handed the nonprofit a temporary win.
Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Christopher Abbott granted the nonprofit’s request for a preliminary injunction on Friday, June 26. The order temporarily blocks a Montana Board of Land Commissioners directive that told the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation not to authorize or approve any new pending bison grazing requests on state trust lands.
The ruling doesn’t end the case. It just stops the state from using that directive to keep American Prairie’s bison grazing requests on hold while the lawsuit continues.
American Prairie argued the Land Board created a new rule without going through Montana’s formal rulemaking process. The state argued the pause was reasonable while officials work through how bison grazing should be handled on state trust lands.
Note: This isn’t the same case as American Prairie’s ongoing battle with the Bureau of Land Management over federal grazing allotments. This one centers on Montana state trust lands and on whether the Land Board followed proper procedures before freezing bison grazing requests.
The Fight Over State Trust Lands
The Montana Land Board includes the governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state auditor, and superintendent of public instruction. DNRC manages about 5.2 million surface acres and 6.2 million subsurface acres of state trust land to generate revenue for schools and other trust beneficiaries.
Earlier this year, the Land Board directed the DNRC to develop a policy favoring grazing leases for production livestock operations over non-production operations. DNRC later opened a public scoping period for that policy. If approved, it would guide the agency’s handling of grazing leases on state trust land.
American Prairie is a conservation nonprofit working to restore grassland habitat in north-central Montana. It manages a bison herd in Phillips County that has grazed on private and public land. Ranchers and some state officials have pushed back for years, arguing bison grazing creates problems for neighboring cattle operations and traditional agriculture.
American Prairie says the state has singled it out and delayed decisions for years. Its attorneys argued the nonprofit can’t get an approval, a denial, or a clear next step from DNRC.
DNRC Moves on a 2019 Request
The DNRC posted another development the same day as the ruling.
On June 26, the agency said it’s proposing to process American Prairie’s Sept. 24, 2019, request to change the class of livestock on five state leases. The request also includes fencing work tied to those leases. The project area sits in the Telegraph Creek, Flat Creek, White Rock, East Dry Fork/French Coulee, and Garey Coulee BLM allotments, about 35 miles south-southeast of Malta.
The proposal doesn’t settle the lawsuit or the broader dispute over bison grazing in Montana. It does put one of American Prairie’s long-pending state lease requests back in motion.
The Federal Case Is Still Looming
American Prairie is also fighting the Bureau of Land Management over bison grazing on federal public land.
In May, the BLM issued a final decision rescinding American Prairie’s bison grazing authorizations on seven Phillips County allotments. The agency also issued cattle-only permits where appropriate and set a Sept. 30, 2026, deadline for removing bison from those federal public lands.
The BLM said the Taylor Grazing Act only allows the agency to authorize grazing for domestic livestock managed primarily for production-oriented purposes. The agency concluded American Prairie manages its bison primarily for conservation and ecological restoration rather than as a production-oriented domestic livestock operation.
American Prairie disputes that. The nonprofit says BLM’s decision would end its bison grazing on federal public land after Sept. 30, 2026, and that its bison have grazed there with BLM permission since 2005.
The state case is different. For now, American Prairie’s lawsuit focuses on whether the Land Board followed the right process before freezing bison grazing requests on state trust lands. The broader fight over bison, cattle, public grazing, and conservation is still playing out in Montana and in federal appeals.
The injunction stops the state from enforcing the Land Board’s directive against new pending bison grazing requests while the case continues.
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