Crossing Continents The real ‘Yellowstone’: a battle for the cowboy way of life
Nov 4, 2025
Brud Smith, a fifth-generation rancher in Montana, shares his firsthand experiences about the crucial role of federal land in ranching life. Tracy Stone Manning, a conservation leader and former head of the Bureau of Land Management, passionately discusses the importance of protecting public lands as a shared American legacy. They delve into the heated debate over land development, the unlikelihood of selling off public land, and how this unites a diverse coalition from cowboys to environmentalists, all fighting to preserve their way of life and cultural identity.
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Five-Generation Ranch Life
- Brudd Smith shows life on a multi-generation Montana ranch with old saddles and seasonal cattle drives to mountain grazing.
- He emphasises horse sense, branding traditions, and dependence on public land permits for summer grazing.
Public Land Is Economically Essential
- About 30% of Montana is federally owned and ranchers rely on grazing permits on public land to run viable operations.
- Brudd pays $1.35 per cow per month on federal land versus roughly $29 per cow on private land, making public access economically critical.
Sell-Off Proposal Sparked Slippery-Slope Fears
- Senator Mike Lee proposed selling up to three million acres of federal land to fund housing, framing it as a way to shrink federal control.
- Critics saw the proposal as a slippery slope threatening the idea of public lands held for all Americans.