Property Rights

Ronald Bailey | 1.23.2026 5:00 PM

An ambitious and privately funded project to create a 5,000-square-mile prairie reserve where buffalo may roam and antelope play in eastern Montana is being stymied by an obtuse new ruling by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The goal of the American Prairie nonprofit is to re-create a prairie ecosystem one-and-a-half times the size of Yellowstone National Park that can eventually support a free-ranging herd of 5,000 bison. Such a reserve would also greatly benefit other prairie species, including elk, pronghorn antelope, sage grouse, prairie dogs, and perhaps one day, predators like mountain lions and bears.

Reason reported on this remarkable private conservation project 10 years ago.

American Prairie uses a variety of techniques to assemble the land needed to create an ecologically self-sustaining reserve. For example, the nonprofit forms voluntary partnerships with local ranchers, making direct payments to them as an incentive to adopt wildlife-friendly management practices on their private lands. In addition, the group also connects the landscape by purchasing private land.

Like much of the western United States, the federal government owns huge swathes of land in Montana with the BLM owning and managing over 8 million acres in the state. The BLM leases out a lot of the range to private operators such as cattle ranchers. In fact, Montana has the most BLM grazing permits of any state. The BLM authorizes 1.1 million animal unit months........

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