Bison will stay, for now, on American Prairie's Montana grazing leases, judge rules
American Prairie’s bison will remain on Bureau of Land Management grazing allotments for now after Montana Chief District Judge Brian Morris granted the group a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order.
The BLM had ordered the group’s herd of a nearly 1,000 bison off four allotments located in northeastern Montana by the end of September. American Prairie challenged the rule and a hearing was held in August.
On Friday, Morris issued a scathing 29-page rebuke to the Trump administration’s interpretation of the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act it had used to exclude American Prairie.
The act was interpreted by the BLM earlier this year to allow only production livestock to graze on federal lands. American Prairie’s bison didn’t qualify, the agency said, because they are a conservation herd.
American Prairie won its court challenge allowing it to continue grazing bison on federal grazing leases, for now, in northeastern Montana.
BLM photo
The BLM’s decision, favored by Gov. Greg Gianforte’s administration and the Montana Stockgrowers Association, ignored that the BLM had previously allowed American Prairie’s bison to graze on the allotments for the past 20 years.
Morris wrote in his decision that the BLM and Montana, which intervened in the case, interpreted the Taylor Grazing Act in a manner “unsupported by statute or case law.”
BLM “relied on facts — namely a ‘production-oriented requirement’ — that Congress clearly did not intend for it to consider,” Morris said.
He also found persuasive American Prairie’s arguments that its bison would qualify as production oriented because of the number of animals sold, killed for meat or provided to tribes.
At the hearing in late August, both sides had cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case Public Lands Council v. Babbitt as favoring their arguments. Morris found BLM’s reasoning faulty.
In the unanimous decision in 2000, the high court ruled that although Congress initially envisioned grazing permit holders would be ranchers, the act “does not show any such absolute requirement.” The case was brought by Utah ranchers worried that conservation groups would lease land as a way to eliminate livestock grazing.
“No statutory language or judicial precedent exists that requires a livestock operation to focus exclusively on production and entirely ignore conservation, range improvement, preservation, or other values,” he wrote.
The ruling also noted that the “U.S. Supreme Court rejected the proposition Federal Defendants and Montana now argue that the language in (Taylor Grazing Act) intended to limit grazing permits to only those engaged in the livestock business, rather than those otherwise owning livestock.”
The conservation group hailed the judge’s decision.
“The court’s ruling recognizes what American Prairie has argued from the beginning, that the Taylor Grazing Act does not require a grazing operation to focus exclusively on production and ignore conservation or restoration,” said Mary Cochenour, attorney for American Prairie, in a statement.
Cochenour had noted the BLM went out of its way to define livestock in its interpretation of the Taylor Grazing Act. Morris agreed, writing that Black’s Law Dictionary provided a clear definition that the BLM never challenged and which would apply to American Prairie’s bison.
The conservation group Earthjustice praised Morris’ decision.
“The Trump administration’s decision to force more than 900 bison off federal land was illegal and politically motivated,” said Jenny Harbine, the group’s attorney. “We look forward to presenting our case to ensure bison can remain on public lands across the country.”
The BLM and Montana had also argued that American Prairie did not meet the standard of irreparable harm necessary for immediate relief. Morris disagreed, writing that American Prairie could not pursue damages it had cited for expenses like culling, feeding and fencing if it were to move its herds.
The court also found the BLM’s decision arbitrary and capricious because it ignored the “evidence demonstrating American Prairie’s production-oriented bison operation.”
The only portion of its challenge American Prairie lost was that the judgment apply to only the three allotments on which it had bison, but not the other three where there are none.
The BLM and Gov. Gianforte’s office did not respond with comments on the ruling.
Cochenour, the American Prairie attorney, called the judge’s decision “a significant finding, and we are grateful that the court has allowed the bison to remain in place while this case moves forward.”
Still in the works is the lawsuit American Prairie filed challenging the BLM’s decision to revoke the grazing permits.
