6/26/24

Land board blocks Montana overreach in APR bison case

American Prairie (APR) near Malta in north-central Montana got its first bison from Wind Cave National Park in occupied South Dakota in 2005. 

The group hopes to have native animals grazing on some 5000 square miles or about 3.2 million acres of private land including 63,000A. in Phillips County connected with corridors to federal land stewarded by the Bureau of Land Management and to the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. Total land including the purchase of 36 ranches is as big as the State of Connecticut or the size of Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks combined. Adjacent is the Fort Belknap Reservation where the Nakoda and the Aaniiih manage a range with more than a thousand bison so building a tourist destination helps economic development for the entire region. 

Two recent acquisitions totaling 12,534 acres bring APR's deeded and leased property to more than 475,000 acres despite an appeal by the State of Montana and a bunch of Earth haters who failed to stop the non-profit from grazing bison on eighteen BLM allotments in five counties. A recent decision by the BLM allows for 7,969 animal unit months at $1.35 per AUM of permitted use with a 1:1 conversion from cattle to bison. 

That Republicans in Montana's executive branch and welfare ranchers are angry about the ruling means it's the right thing to do.

We all know this: unless the West embraces rewilding on portions of the Missouri River basin west of a north/south line from Oacoma, South Dakota through the CM Russell National Wildlife Refuge to Yellowstone National Park, north to the Yukon and south to the Rio Grande water wars will clog the courts leaving violent armed vigilantism to settle disputes.

Learn more at American Prairie.
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