The American buffalo have joined wind turbines, electric cars and climate researchers in the cross hairs of the Trump administration

MALTA, MT — American buffalo (bison) have become a target of the Trump administration, joining wind turbines and electric cars as focus points for policy changes.

The Department of the Interior is moving to cancel lease permits for bison on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, affecting conservation efforts by groups like American Prairie.

Former North Dakota Governor and now Interior Secretary Doug Burgum argued that bison, unlike cattle, are not raised for “production-oriented purposes” and therefore should not be prioritized on federal land.

The move represents a major shift from a 2022 decision that allowed bison to graze on public land, placing them in the center of a broader political debate on conservation versus commercial use.

Burgum aimed his proposed decision at seven federal lease allotments held by American Prairie, a well-heeled nonprofit foundation that has long been a nemesis of local cattle ranchers and Montana Republicans.

American Prairie—often with large donations from wealthy coastal environmentalists—has been buying ranches in the depopulated outback of eastern Montana for nearly a quarter century. The foundation wants to revive the grassland ecosystem to create an “American Serengeti,” chock full of sage grouse, prairie dogs, and charismatic megafauna like bison, pronghorn, elk, wolves, and grizzly bears.

The anti-buffalo wording of Bergum’s proposed decision, however, is resounding far beyond this lonesome precinct of Montana. It is raising alarm and outrage from the Great Plains to California, where there are about half a million bison, many of which are raised for conservation and human consumption.

Buffalo are grazing behind fences on scores of Indian reservations and on BLM allotments in Colorado, New Mexico, the Dakotas and elsewhere in Montana—and have been doing so without legal objection from Interior for more than four decades, until this year’s order overturning BLM’s 2022 decision to allow American Prairie to graze bison on seven allotments in Phillips County, Montana, located in the state’s Missouri River Country.

If finalized this spring, the move could lead to culling or relocating of thousands of bison – not just in Montana – but across the country as well.

The largest federal herd at approximately 5,400 head is in Yellowstone National Park.  

In South Dakota, approximately 1,000 to 1,200 bison (buffalo) graze on federal land within South Dakota’s Badlands National Park.  There are approximately 400 to 500 bison (buffalo) in Wind Cave National Park.

Another 700-800 bison graze on federal land within the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

All could be removed if the Trump/Burgum ruling becomes final.