Noah Rott, Deputy Press Secretary, Sierra Club, noah.rott@sierraclub.org
John Meyer, Executive Director, Cottonwood Law, john@cottonwoodlaw.org
Bozeman, MT – Today the Montana Sierra Club, represented by Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, filed a motion to intervene to defend the 2024 Yellowstone National Park Bison Management Plan, which increases population objectives from 3,000 animals to 6,000. Montana's recent lawsuit seeks to limit healthy populations of animals from roaming public lands and to limit hunting opportunities to Tribal members across the region.
"Gov. Gianforte continues to prove he's more interested in siding with a small number of wealthy landowners instead of everyday Montanans who deeply love our nation's most iconic mammals," said Caryn Miske, Montana Sierra Club's Chapter Director. "Tribes, biologists, public lands officials and wildlife experts came together to determine this herd can safely grow and provide hunting opportunities to people whose treaty rights have been violated since their inception. The State does not manage bison on reservation lands and it needs to stop acting like it does."
Montana's lawsuit alleges the 2024 Yellowstone Bison Management Plan was prepared at “break-neck pace,” but the federal court ordered its preparation in 2020.
"Taking four years to complete environmental analysis may be break-neck for Montana, but it isn’t for the rest of us.” said John Meyer, Executive Director of Cottonwood. “Montana is threatening to further reduce the areas where bison are allowed to roam and where tribal hunters can assert their treaty rights by ignoring the scientific evidence that demonstrates elk, not bison, are the disease vectors.
The lawsuit faults the National Park Service (NPS) for failing to consider Montana may further prevent Yellowstone bison from leaving the park if the population number increases. The State of Montana previously told the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that its decision of where bison can roam on federal land in Montana is an “admittedly arbitrary political boundary.”
“The science and economics support what hunters, conservationists, and tree-huggers have been saying for a long time–bison should be allowed to roam free on public lands,” said Miske.
“The state of Montana seems to have forgotten that natives were hunting bison long before Montana became a state. It’s time for Yellowstone bison to roam free on public lands to restore hunting opportunities for my people,” said Alvin Fritzler, a member of the Crow Tribe and Cottonwood.
A 2023 study found Yellowstone National Park brings in $600 million to the local economy every year. Many Tribes are increasing efforts to work with NPS to transfer Bison to propagate new herds on their lands. Outdated quarantine policies are stymieing those transfers back.
Background: The 2024 management plan is an update to the 2000 Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP). Cottonwood challenged NPS in 2018 for failing to update the IBMP to consider new information indicating bison population objectives should increase from 3,000 animals to 7,500. Cottonwood also challenged the U.S. Forest Service and Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for failing to update its portion of the IBMP to consider new science regarding the transmission of brucellosis, a disease that causes livestock to abort fetuses. The lawsuit pointed to science showing elk are transmitting brucellosis to cattle all over Montana and asked the court to allow Yellowstone bison to roam freely on public land wherever elk can go.
The court ordered federal agencies to prepare additional analysis. NPS issued its analysis as the Yellowstone Bison Management Plan in July 2024.
Montana filed its lawsuit against the Biden administration in December and the Trump Administration must respond in upcoming weeks. The "sue and settle" stunt fails to acknowledge that the U.S. Forest Service and APHIS never completed its court ordered analysis. Cottonwood has asked the federal court to reopen the 2018 case and order the Forest Service and APHIS to complete the analysis and determine whether bison should be allowed to roam free on public lands.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.