Our World in English: The battle for the cowboy way of life

People in Montana, US worry that they will lose the land the makes the place special.

Nearly half of all the land in the American west is owned by the federal government. Some people want to change that and sell the land to build houses and businesses.

But in Montana, a western state known for wide open spaces and cowboys, lots of people rely on the government land. They worry that their cowboy way of life is under threat.

In this short documentary, we meet Brud Smith, who owns a farm in Montana, and hear about how the place is changing.

Transcript and vocabulary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/our-world-in-english/260213

This programme is based on the documentary The real Yellowstone: A battle for the cowboy way of life from Assignment on the BBC World Service. The original programme was reported by Ellie House and produced by Josephine Casserly. Find more about Assignment here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsn0