Making the Buffalo Commons New Again: Rangeland Restoration and Bison Reintroduction in the Montana Highline

Abstract

American Prairie Reserve’s proposed reintroduction of bison on 3.1 million acres of rangeland in the Highline region of northeastern Montana has drawn strong opposition from local residents with longstanding interests in maintaining the economic viability of a working landscape and the continuity of agrarian lifeways associated with farming and cattle ranching. This article addresses the question of whether the Highline is truly an appropriate place for bison reintroduction. The author argues that bison reintroduction efforts in the Highline are complicated, indeed hampered, by a complex set of biological, economic, and political issues that have hitherto gone unsynthesized.