Ranchers criticize plans for bison herds at BLM meeting

Ranching interests sharply criticized a private grassland preserve in northeastern Montana as well as a new federal initiative in which new free-roaming bison herds could be established in the West. The criticism came Tuesday at a meeting of the Bureau of Land Management's Central Montana Resource Advisory Committee. The 60,000-acre American Prairie Reserve in Phillips County, launched by the not-for-profit American Prairie Foundation in 2006, includes about 100 bison. The reserve consists of private land and property leased from the BLM for grazing. In a separate bison project, last year the U.S. Department of the Interior, under the Bush administration, called for federal agencies to coordinate management of existing bison herds on federal land, research bison genetics and disease, and study partnerships to increase existing herds or establish new ones. Both bison efforts were discussed for 90 minutes Tuesday in Havre, with ranchers and some RAC members raising concerns over the spread of disease, loss of public lands for cattle grazing and lack of local input. "People shouldn't have to drive five hours to testify for three minutes," Malta rancher Dale Veseth said, adding he believed the meeting should have been conducted in Malta, where most of the people affected by bison live. Veseth, citing the economic importance of cattle ranching, alleged that the American Prairie Foundation was in violation of the Taylor Grazing Act, which provides for the "sustainability of western livestock industry," and urged the BLM to reallocate its grazing allotment...GreatFallsTribune