Bison Have Grazed These Lands for Centuries. Trump Wants to Evict Them.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Crazy Alice, a half-ton bison, likes to feast on grass and roll in the dirt, but her deepest attachment might be to a certain corner of the Montana prairie — when her handlers once moved her herd to a different pasture, she tried to break out and go back.
Now, the Trump administration wants to evict Crazy Alice and hundreds of other bison from that home on the range, and replace them with cattle. The resulting clash on the prairie has pitted ranchers and Republican leaders against a furry, snorting symbol of the American West.
“This is a part of our country’s heritage,” said Alison Fox, executive director of American Prairie, a deep-pocketed nonprofit that has spent two decades buying ranches and grazing leases on public land in northern Montana to create the newly embattled home for bison.
The conflict centers on 900 bison owned by the group, which was allowed by multiple administrations, including President Trump’s first, to graze on federal lands, much to the consternation of politically conservative ranchers who wanted the land for cattle.
This winter, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management reversed course and canceled the bison grazing permits. Citing the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, the agency said the federal grasslands where the animals grazed should go to livestock being raised for food, not bison largely enjoying their right to roam. The agency deemed the bison to be wildlife, not production livestock.
Conservation groups condemned the decision, as did Native American tribes , who say the anti-bison effort threatens their own herds as they try to revive bison populations that were hunted to near extinction by 19th-century settlers.
But Montana ranchers like Perri Jacobs celebrated. She said the federal government, a perennial boogeyman for Western conservatives, finally seemed to be on her side.
“These lands are here for food,” said Ms. Jacobs, whose family has raised cows in northern Montana for nearly 110 years. “We have to understand that progress and time march forward. Bison just don’t fit on the landscape anymore.”
Ranchers like Ms. Jacobs could give the Trump administration some sorely needed support in farm country, where Democrats and independents are trying to capitalize on anger over tariffs and the cost of diesel and fertilizer to flip Republican seats in this year’s midterm elections. Phillips County, where the beef over bison centers, is in Montana’s Second Congressional District, a Republican-held seat not on any forecaster’s battlefield map. In the western part of the state, though, Montana’s First District could very much be in play.
Pro-bison environmental groups accused the Trump administration of bowing to pressure `from Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana and ranching groups that had pressed the administration to rule against bison grazing.
“I don’t think it’s actually about the bison,” said Ryan Busse, a Democrat running in a primary in Montana’s First District. “Gianforte is fine with oil companies doing whatever the hell they want on public lands. But some bison walking around and eating grass is a threat?”
The state’s powerful land board — which includes Mr. Gianforte and other high-ranking Republican elected officials — is also taking steps toward kicking bison off Montana state trust lands.
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There's always the kinda majestic maga-Beefalo ...
this isn't about buffalo to maga fascists ...
So where will Crazy Alice and her friends go?
... a meat processing plant.
that's not funny
based upon what we know about those that make this decision, tell me I'm wrong.
this is a created problem, to create another accompanying problem, where the only solution is the intended goal in the first place. to liquidate the assets ...
who but maga thinks they can change the eons old DNA of the continent's largest migratory mammal with a fence.
welcome to reality ...
That's the problem...you're not
I've had a buffalo burger. It was tasty. But it was farm raised out near Centennial.
the kill the buffalo and starve the indians concept has again evolved from the same ideological group that introduced it ...
Win-win - there are nations/tribes in that area who have been wanting to be involved in the protection/growth of the Bison.
Why not have DOI/BLM get with those nations/tribes and assist them in developing/growing their buffalo investments?
The nations/tribes win - the "farmers/ranchers" win - the buffalo, surely, win.
I think you're proposing gov't programs that trump and maga wouldn't support.
But it is true
To Arlo Guthrie's restaurant.
It's okay... All the white bison will be allowed to stay...
LOL - Good one.
Gov. Greg Gianforte is an invasive species.
So, the compacts between the Feds/State/Nations/Tribes/farmers to allow the Nations/Tribes to monitor and work with the increase of buffalo outside Yellowstone are now being voided to placate the rich cattle rustlers???
Well, to many of the "white guys" in Montana - still too many Indians alive.
maga!
Maga!
Let the Trump Chumps beware.
less than 2 months before maga flinch at the sound of every report ...
What about the American nickel coin? Will the image be replaced as well?