Attorney General Knudsen issues statement on BLM’s proposed bison grazing permit cancellation

HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen today issued the following statement regarding the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed decision to cancel the American Prairie Reserve’s bison grazing leases:

“I’m pleased to see this proposed decision from the Trump Administration’s Bureau of Land Management today. Canceling the American Prairie Reserve’s bison grazing permit will help to protect the livestock industry and ranching communities in Northeastern Montana from the elitists trying to push them out. For over four years I have been urging the BLM to cancel the permit, and our work finally paid off. This is a huge victory. As Attorney General and the state’s chief legal officer, I will continue to do my part to support Montana farmers and ranchers.”

Since 2021, Attorney General Knudsen has been asking the BLM to scrap the American Prairie Reserve’s (APR) radical grazing change of use permit proposal, which could have fundamentally transformed northeastern Montana. When making the decision, the Biden administration shut out public input from local communities that were impacted. The decision also violated the Taylor Grazing Act, Federal Land Policy, and Management Act, Public Rangelands Improvement Act, which all aim to improve public range lands and uplift ranching communities. Attorney General Knudsen submitted formal comments, hosted a public listening session in Malta with more than 250 Montanans, and has been fighting the decision in court since 2022.