The state of Montana has sued Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Park Service Director Chuck Sams, and Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly over Yellowstone's bison management plan/NPS file

Montana officials, saying they've not been given "a fair shake," filed a New Year's Eve lawsuit over Yellowstone National Park's bison management plan.

“The National Park Service has repeatedly and consistently failed to engage with the state in a meaningful and transparent manner as required by law throughout the planning process,” Gov. Greg Gianforte said. “NPS has not given us a fair shake and has ignored concerns raised by the state. We will always defend our state from federal overreach.”

The management plan adopted by the Park Service last summer calls for an annual bison population ranging from 3,500-6,000 animals. It also calls for the park to continue to transfer bison to tribal lands via the Bison Conservation Transfer Program, and continue to allow both a "tribal treaty harvest" and public hunting outside the park to regulate numbers.

The plan adheres to Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) objectives to: 1) maintain a wild, free-ranging bison population; 2) reduce the risk of brucellosis transmission from bison to cattle; 3) manage bison that leave Yellowstone National Park and enter the State of Montana; and 4) maintain Montana’s brucellosis-free status for domestic livestock.  

Montana officials have long been at odds with Yellowstone over bison and since 2022 at least have voiced concerns over how bison are managed by the park. Gianforte in 2023 criticized Yellowstone's then-proposed bison management alternatives, citing the park's "lack of cooperation with the State of Montana, deficient and misstated analysis, and failure to meet its own mandates," a release from the state said.

“The Department of Livestock is committed to preventing, controlling and eradicating animal disease,” state Department of Livestock Director Mike Honeycutt said in the release. “Given the way NPS has ignored feedback from Montana, we have major concerns about potential threats to animal health from the possible spread of brucellosis.”

In the lawsuit (attached below) filed in U.S. District Court in Billings, Montana officials claim that over the past two decades park officials have "utterly failed to manage to the specified population target [3,000 individuals] or implement critical elements of its plan."

"In an effort to cover its inability to manage bison pursuant to the 2000 [bison management] plan, YNP adopted a new Bison Management Plan (BMP) in 2024," the lawsuit continued. "This new plan’s adoption fails to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and is a violation of the National Park Service Organic Act (NPSOA) and Yellowstone National Park Protection Act (YNPPA). Critically, it was developed without meaningful consultation and collaboration with one of its 'cooperating agencies'…the State of Montana.

Yellowstone officials could not be reached New Year's Day for comment.

Managing Yellowstone bison long has been a controversial issue due to concerns they could spread brucellosis to cattle herds in Montana. That concern led to adoption of the Interagency Bison Management Plan in 2000 after Montana sued the federal government in 1995 over fears bison were spreading brucellosis to cattle. However, research conducted in 2016 concluded that elk, not bison, infected cattle herds in Montana and, overall, posed a greater threat than bison to spreading the disease in the region. Nevertheless, Montana takes a much harsher view of bison entering the state than it does elk.

The challenges in managing the park’s bison reflect the various agencies involved. Once bison leave the park, they no longer are under Park Service jurisdiction but fall either under state control or the U.S. Forest Service if on national forest lands. Additionally, several tribes have treaty rights to hunt bison that leave Yellowstone and head onto the Custer Gallatin National Forest.

Private landowners also come into play when bison move onto their properties, while non-governmental organizations that want to preserve Yellowstone bison also voice their concerns.

“Bison represent a complex and contentious issue with both livestock producers and wildlife advocates,” Christy Clark, director of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said Tuesday. “We had hoped for and asked for a better and more transparent process in developing this EIS. Those requests were ignored.”

Back in July, shortly before the plan was adopted by the Park Service, Gianforte wrote Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and National Park Service Director Chuck Sams to complain about Yellowstone's work on the management plan.

"Yellowstone has avoided substantive, collaborative discussions with the state's scientists and technical advisors at every turn on the issue, offering meetings only when documents and decisions were fully cooked," the goveror stated in the letter (attached below). "These repeated and consistent failures to be transparent, meaningfully engage with the state early or often, or even respond to state requests, violate NPS's commitments and destabilie the long-standing cooperative relationship shared by the state and NPS."

The Republican further alleged that the "condescending and disingenuous methods of NPS, and other agencies, is forcing a new day in the West. Gone are the opportunities for states and affected stakeholders to show up and earnestly engage in collaborative processes."