SEATTLE — The Interior Department published proposed grazing rules in the federal register on May 12, limiting Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leases to production-oriented livestock. On the same day, the Interior Department repealed the Public Lands Rule, which previously placed land conservation on equal footing with mining, oil drilling, and logging on federal land.
Tribes with U.S. treaties are seeking government-to-government negotiations with Interior officials regarding the proposed grazing rules. They are also requesting an exemption from the new rules, which apply to all BLM land without an exclusion for tribes. The proposed regulations do not specify any separate allowance for grazing by indigenous animals.
In 2023, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued a federal order directing agencies to restore wild and healthy populations of American bison. This order also directed federal agencies to prioritize Tribally led opportunities to establish new, large herds and advance shared stewardship with Tribes on federal land. Haaland is the first Native American to serve as Interior Secretary.
"If these rules are finalized as written, they will concentrate management of public lands in the hands of the livestock industry," said Martin Nie, a professor of public lands and wildlife policy at the University of Montana. He added that the repealed conservation rule had more provisions for tribal input than ever before in the history of the BLM.
Tribally managed bison are raised for purposes including land conservation and personal consumption. Member tribes of the Coalition of Large Tribes manage approximately 25,000 bison. OJ Semans Sr., executive director of the coalition, stated that they hope the Interior will reconsider the terminology or grant an exclusion to the tribes. The phrase production-oriented livestock does not appear in the Taylor Grazing Act, which governs livestock management on BLM land.
The Interior also announced a final ban on bison grazing on BLM land leased by American Prairie, a nonprofit organization, on May 8. For several decades, BLM grazing permits for indigenous animals were approved at the discretion of local federal officers. Tribes including the Blackfeet, Lower Brule Sioux, Cheyenne River Sioux, and Crow distributed bison meat to reservation residents during a federal food aid interruption last fall. The public comment period for the new grazing rules concludes in mid-July.