BLM approves American Prairie expanded grazing
(Wash. D.C.) – Mt. U-S Senator Steve Daines and Mt. Congressman Matt Rosendale are urging the Biden Administration to extend the protest period on the proposed decision affecting grazing allotments for the American Prairie Reserve in Phillips County.
Last week, officials with the U-S Bureau of Land Management approved the group’s proposal to expand bison grazing on the prairies of Eastern Mt., amid objections from ranchers and some elected officials. The decision will allow the American Prairie to graze bison on BLM land and remove about 30 miles of fences so the animals can roam more freely.
Senator Daines and Congressman Rosendale, in a joint statement said the Bureau of Land Management received more than 27-hundred comments with serious concerns about the proposal but the BLM still gave it the go-ahead.
The group’s long term goal is to piece together a 5,000 square mile expanse of public and private lands with thousands of bison and other wildlife.
Concerns in the past have included whether the APR would have to follow the same grazing rules as ranchers do, mixing Bison with cattle and simply making less grazing land available for cattle.