American Prairie Bison Hunt Canceled After BLM Grazing Permit Decision

A Montana bison hunt that has been used as a herd-management tool since 2018 has been canceled after the Bureau of Land Management revoked American Prairie’s bison grazing permits.

That wipes out a rare public opportunity: normally about 20 to 25 bison tags are offered through a free online drawing, with thousands of applicants trying for the chance. American Prairie says the harvest helps keep herd numbers and habitat in balance, and that hunting is part of how the property is managed.

The bigger fight is over how public lands can be used for native species restoration, conservation grazing, and public access. American Prairie says it owns more than 600,000 acres, opens much of its ground to the public, enrolls more than 80,000 deeded acres in Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ Block Management program, and provides access to adjacent public lands.

Now the bison have to be moved off federal grazing areas while American Prairie and the Coalition of Large Tribes appeal the BLM decision. That is a bad outcome for the hunters who lost opportunity, and it raises a bigger question about who gets to decide what conservation looks like on public ground.

Bison are not museum pieces. They are wildlife. If a herd needs managed, a legal public harvest can put meat in freezers, keep numbers in check, and keep people invested in the land. Locking hunters out is not automatically conservation. Sometimes it is just another way to make wildlife management worse.