Under a new governor, and new Director, Hank Worech, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has discarded eleven years of staff effort, mostly under the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) with abundant public participation, to arbitrarily declare its incomplete work on bison restoration null and void, and has agreed not to pursue any restoration of public-trust, wild bison in the state for 10 years.
This abrupt and blatant action by the Gianforte administration is one more betrayal of public trust by the Montana government, both the 2021 legislature and the administration. It places one more notch on the bison rifle of the Montana livestock industry.
There are no public-trust wild bison, year-round, in Montana. Yellowstone bison are only seasonal visitors. Those on the Bison Range are Tribal-trust bison.
The most recent, erratic, planning for Montana bison restoration began in 2009. FWP staff produced a thorough analysis of the environmental issues of bison restoration, to which the Bullock administration added, in 2020, a bland decision: only that restoration “on a landscape scale” was possible. No site or timetable for restoration was proposed.
(In response, the Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition submitted a proposal for a test restoration of 400 bison on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.)
In March, 2020, United Property Owners of Montana filed a complaint for injunctive relief in District Court. In our opinion, the complaint had little legal or truthful basis. However, in April, 2021, under a new state administration, FWP and UPOM reached a settlement agreement in which FWP renounced its previous work under MEPA. Moreover, FWP agreed not to renew efforts to restore public-trust, wild bison for another 10 years. This latter stipulation was not part of the original UPOM complaint.
In light of the FWP capitulation, the Court declared the 2020 Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision vacated, null and void. Note, it appears that the stipulation of 10 years without bison restoration is not a Court order, but lawyers may have to decide the legalities of much in the FWP/UPOM agreement. It seems everything in the agreement is arbitrary and capricious. Nothing is justified with any evidence.
The legality of the FWP/UPOM agreement seems highly questionable. It clearly violates much of the policy and purposes of MEPA. If a governor can simply relegate years of agency and public effort and resources, under the MEPA process, to the trash heap, without explanation, then MEPA is rendered meaningless. Moreover, can a governor arbitrarily obligate a state agency, and future governors, with a 10-year “no action” commitment?
Thank you,
Jim Bailey, Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition
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