"An Interior Department proposal would cancel BLM grazing leases for American Prairie's buffalo in Montana, but it could affect tribal and private herds across the West."
"PHILLIPS COUNTY, Mont.—The American buffalo—those ornery, hairy prairie beasts that reign as the official mammal of the United States—have joined wind turbines, electric cars and climate researchers in the cross hairs of the Trump administration.
Acceding to anti-bison grumbling from cattle ranchers and Republican politicians in Montana, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in January proposed canceling leases for buffalo grazing on federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
The BLM is part of the Department of the Interior, which, for more than a century, has celebrated its role in heading off the extinction of buffalo, which were killed by the tens of millions during white settlement in the West. The Interior Department still sports a buffalo on its official seal.
But the BLM, long nicknamed the “Bureau of Livestock and Mining,” has traditionally prioritized leasing the rangelands it oversees for cattle grazing."
Blaine Harden reports for Inside Climate News April 5, 2026.
