A lawsuit filed by the American Prairie, a liberal nonprofit,is setting up what state officials say could be a defining legal battle over the future of Montana’s public lands — and who gets to decide how they are used.
American Prairie sued the Montana State Land Board and the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation in Lewis and Clark County District Court, challenging the board’s decision to block the group’s wild bison from grazing on state trust lands. The filing came just days after the Land Board passed two resolutions targeting the practice.
At the heart of the board’s position is Montana’s founding compact with Congress. When Montana became a state in 1889, trust lands were set aside with a specific constitutional purpose: generating revenue to fund public education. Brown said that obligation is not negotiable.
“This obligation to manage these lands for the benefit of schools is an agreement between the people of Montana and Congress when we became a state,” Montana State Auditor James Brown,said.
The Land Board oversees roughly 5.2 million acres of state trust lands. Lease payments and other uses generated more than $80 million for Montana’s public schools in 2025 alone, according to Brown — a figure that underscores what board members say is their primary duty to Montana’s students and taxpayers, not to the land-use preferences of outside organizations.
The dispute has been building for years. In January, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, under the Trump administration, moved to revoke American Prairie’s bison grazing permits on federal land in Phillips County. That action followed sustained legal pressure from Montana’s governor and attorney general, who have argued that bison are wildlife — not production livestock — and that permitting them to graze on public lands violates the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act.
By Montana Newsroom staff
