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Fort Peck\u2019s buffalo roam the windswept plains in zero-degree weather at Turtle Mound Ranch near Wolf Point on February 19, 2026. The program, which incorporates a cultural herd and livestock herd, contains about 1,100 bison and was started in 1999. Credit: John Stember<\/p>\n
The state of Montana yesterday filed to dismiss its own lawsuit against Yellowstone National Park over bison management.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The suit stemmed from Yellowstone\u2019s new bison management plan<\/a>, released in summer 2024. Under the framework \u2014 the first update to bison management in Yellowstone in nearly two-and-a-half decades \u2014 bison numbers would average about 5,000 in the park, allowing for the species\u2019 ecological role on the landscape and enhancing tribal transfer and harvest opportunities outside park boundaries.<\/p>\n The state filed suit<\/a> on New Year\u2019s Eve 2024, renewing decades-long tension between Yellowstone National Park and Montana over how many bison there should be, where they exist, and who gets a say.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conservation groups and tribes celebrated the news that the state was dropping the lawsuit.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state of Montana had all the opportunity to participate just like everyone else,\u201d said Michelle Uberuaga, Greater Yellowstone program manager with the National Parks Conservation Association. \u201cThey thought that they could leverage a new administration to get what they wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n Uberuaga said the motion to dismiss is a victory for the country\u2019s national mammal. \u201cMontanans understand\u00a0bison belong on the landscape. They need to be able to move freely in and out of Yellowstone. And ideally, across a much larger swath of public lands and tribal lands not only across Montana, but across their historic range. We will continue to work to ensure a robust bison transfer program, healthy numbers in the park, and science-based management for bison moving forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes intervened in the case last year in support of the National Park Service, citing the tribes\u2019 role in the Bison Conservation Transfer Program. Fort Peck is home to the only federally approved facility capable of receiving disease-free, quarantined bison from Yellowstone. Working with the park, the tribes have transferred more than 400 bison from that facility to 26 other tribes in 12 states since 2019. The tribal facility received 200 bison from Yellowstone<\/a> this year alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Fort Peck Tribes are encouraged to see the State of Montana dismiss its lawsuit so that the parties can move past litigation and focus on the real work ahead on the Bison Management Plan,\u201d Floyd Azure, chairman of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation, said in a Sept. 14 press release<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tA bison herd feeds in Yellowstone National Park. <\/p>\n Over the course of nearly two years of litigation, Montana alleged the plan allowed for too many bison, and that the park made their decision without legally required consultation with the state. While there\u2019s never been a documented brucellosis transmission in the wild, bison can spread the disease, which can cause cattle to spontaneously abort fetuses and force ranchers to quarantine their herds.<\/p>\n \u201cThe National Park Service has repeatedly and consistently failed to engage with the State in a meaningful and transparent manner,\u201d Montana Governor Greg Gianforte said in a press release<\/a> when the state filed suit in 2024. \u201cWe will always defend our state from federal overreach.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In July 2026, Montana attorneys filed a motion to include text messages from Yellowstone superintendent Cam Sholly to Gianforte. In one text, Sholly called the state\u2019s desire for a bison herd as small as 3,000 members a \u201cbs number.\u201d<\/a> The texts, the state\u2019s attorneys alleged, showed the park had already made up its mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bison_YNP_Jacob_W_Frank_NPS-1024x681.webp\")
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