In May 2026, various social media posts spread a rumor that the Trump administration was evicting wild bison herds from federal grasslands. A post on both X (archived) and Threads (archived) claimed exactly that.
(Threads user @factpostnews)
The claim was also shared on Reddit's r/politics board (archived) and on Facebook (archived). A separate Facebook post (archived) added more detail to the rumor and claimed, "The Trump administration is moving to evict nearly 1,000 bison from federal grasslands in Montana" to hand over the land to cattle ranchers.
As of May 5, the Trump administration has been working to revoke grazing permits from a group that manages a herd of bison for grassland conservation. While this decision would revoke the permits for a single group managing a single herd, it's possible the decision could have an impact on other bison herds that graze on lands owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The decision would not affect other federal lands, such as Yellowstone National Park.
Therefore, we are not assigning this claim a rating.
Bison grazing decision
The move to evict the bison stems from a Jan. 16 proposed decision by the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management that would reverse a 2022 decision granting conservation group American Prairie permits to have bison graze on some BLM-owned land.
BLM says on its website that it manages livestock grazing on 155 million acres of public land. The agency grants renewable 10-year permits and leases to ranchers to allow for livestock to graze on "allotments" of land.
In 2022, BLM allowed for bison grazing on some of American Prairie's allotments that previously only allowed cattle to graze. According to the proposed 2026 decision (Page 2), BLM has allowed American Prairie's bison to graze on certain allotments since 2005.
American Prairie says it has a herd of over 900 bison.
The 2026 decision (Page 5) would cancel bison grazing permits from American Prairie's allotments of public grazing lands and reissue cattle-only permits in their place.
The decision to cancel the bison grazing permits has been praised by Montana's Republican Governor Greg Gianforte and the Montana Stockgrowers Association, which advocates for cattle ranchers in the state. The decision has been criticized by conservation groups including American Prairie and the Coalition of Large Tribes, which advocates for over 50 Native American tribes.
Both American Prairie and the Coalition of Large Tribes challenged the proposal with written protests. BLM must review the protests before making a final decision. American Prairie has promised to appeal and pursue "all legal actions available" to further challenge BLM's decision if the agency decides to finalize its proposal as is.
BLM did not reply to an email seeking confirmation that it has not yet issued a final decision.
Beth Saboe, American Prairie's director of public affairs, did confirm in an email that BLM hasn't yet issued that decision. Saboe said American Prairie's bison herd continues to graze on its properties, which is a combination of both private and BLM-owned land.
American Prairie says the two properties where its bison graze are fenced in.
Wild vs. domestic
BLM's justification for the decision is largely based on its defining American Prairie's bison herd as wildlife as opposed to domestic livestock. American Prairie, on the other hand, maintains that its bison are not wild animals.
In its 2026 proposal, BLM says (Page 2) the Taylor Grazing Act only authorizes it to grant grazing permits to animals that are "domestic" and will be used for "production-oriented purposes." This interpretation of BLM's authority is based on definitions created within the proposal itself.
The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 is the framework for modern law regarding grazing permits on public land. Its text authorizes the Department of the Interior to issue "permits to graze livestock," which is still the language used in grazing law today.
The proposal acknowledges (Page 3) that the Taylor Grazing Act and other relevant laws didn't define the term "livestock" or "domestic." It also acknowledges that BLM itself doesn't define "domestic livestock" aside from five common livestock animals it lists.
In the place of legal definitions, BLM's proposal bases its authority on dictionary definitions of the words "live," "stock" and "domestic." The proposal excludes animals "presently treated as wild or are intended to be released into the wild" from BLM's authority based on the "obvious meaning" of domestic as the opposite of wild. Since the definition of "stock" in Black's Law Dictionary is tied to commerce, BLM wrote in its proposal that livestock must therefore be used for "production-oriented purposes," such as producing animal products like meat, milk or fiber.
American Prairie, on the other hand, cites Montana law that separates domestic bison from wild bison based in part on whether the bison is owned by a person. In their protests, both American Prairie and the Coalition of Large Tribes argue that BLM's definitions do not appear in the Taylor Grazing Act or other law on grazing permits, and "production-oriented purposes" is not a term used in the laws at all.
The Coalition of Large Tribes also points to (Page 5) to the definition of "livestock" in law concerning the U.S. Forest Service, which also manages grazing permits on its land, and Montana law. The Forest Service's regulations define livestock as "animals of any kind kept or raised for use or pleasure." Montana law defines it as cattle, horses, mules, asses, sheep, llamas, alpacas, bison, swine, ostriches, rheas, emus and goats.
Would this decision impact other bison herds not owned by American Prairie?
While the ripple effects of this decision can't be known with absolute certainty until after it's finalized, opponents of the decision fear that BLM's proposed definition of "domestic livestock" would impact other bison herds that graze on BLM-owned lands, including herds owned by Native American tribes.
American Prairie's herd isn't the only bison herd that BLM has previously permitted to graze on federal land; a January 2025 BLM infographic said the agency had 41 grazing permits for bison at the time.
In its own letter protesting BLM's proposal, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe said its herd is the largest tribal bison herd in the United States. Its herd, the tribe wrote, "feeds between 2,000 and 3,000 Tribal members per month" and thus would likely meet the BLM's "production-oriented" requirements. Even so, the tribe says its herd would not qualify under BLM's definition of "domestic" because it treats the bison in its herd as wild.
The Coalition of Large Tribes' protest (Page 6) says "all tribal buffalo herds try to treat their animals as wild." Even so, the protest notes that tribal herds are still managed within fences.
However, there are bison in the U.S. that are not privately owned and are thus more generally considered "wild." These bison usually graze on federal grasslands that aren't managed by BLM and thus aren't affected by grazing permits.
For example, the country's largest bison herd on public land is in Yellowstone National Park, which is the "only place in the United States where bison (Bison bison) have lived continuously since prehistoric times." The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a conservation group, says this herd is "widely considered the last truly wild herd of American plains bison in existence."
The National Park Service has "sole authority" to manage bison within Yellowstone National Park's boundaries and allows the herd to freely roam and graze within the park. However, its management of bison, which is a migratory species, is impacted by "Montana's limited tolerance for their presence outside the park."
Overall, the Department of the Interior supports approximately 11,000 bison for conservation purposes on its land. Many of these bison are protected by the National Park Service, which manages about 9,700 bison across 10 national parks.