No Trespassing.. Maybe?

[Chuck R.]

Interesting article:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/t...sedgntp&cvid=516eca40258e443e82f42c35d8161c61

CHEYENNE — It’s not hard to find misleading “no trespassing” and “private property” signs erected on public land in Wyoming, a tactic used to dissuade people from trekking onto property they can legally access

Soon, however, adjoining private landowners and others who post that type of erroneous signage could face big fines. House Bill 147 – Unlawful trespass signage-taking of wildlife, which is sailing through the Legislature, would make such deceit a crime.

When I was a kid we ran into this once when a couple guys posted signs along a public salt marsh. We actually knew the guys, and they offered to let us in on their "private spot", but my dad was having none of it and the signs came down.

 

[jmorris]

Hmm, maybe I need to put up a few 200mph speed limit signs…

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Funny how people don't like hunters.

 

[Rubone]

Access to public land is a big issue here. A couple years ago I had an Antelope hunt on public/state land and reviewing all the locations showed access, however upon actually attempting that access I ran into locked gate after locked gate put there by the adjoining ranches. Most of whom offered private land paid hunts. I complained to the game department who said they "were working on it", but it didn't help my hunt which are only three day hunts.

 

[Choctaw]

Funny how people don't like hunters.

Yeah, or hunters don't like competition.

 

[jmr40]

Interesting case working it's way through the court system. Seems 4 hunters used a ladder to cross from one tract of public land to another tract of public land at a corner where the other 2 sections were private. They never touched the ground on private property. But the land owner is claiming they violated his airspace.

Hunters Say ‘Corner Crossing’ Lawsuit An Attempt To Close All Public Land Access - Cowboy State Daily

 

[courtgreene]

I've been mulling buying preference points in Wyoming. Really want to hunt there. The more I look into it and find out what ranchers are doing to block access to public game land, the more I think it would be a fool's errand to accumulate points there. When we (Easterners) hear the acreage of public gamelands out west, we are impressed. In fact, we are usually amazed. When you consider access, though, it starts to look very much like a rigged game.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Yeah, or hunters don't like competition.

Sure, the hunters putting up signs to make their own private havens may be doing it to reduce competition, but they are disallowing access by more than just hunters. Public land, at least in this case, is public use land. So there will be others impacted.

Interesting case working it's way through the court system. Seems 4 hunters used a ladder to cross from one tract of public land to another tract of public land at a corner where the other 2 sections were private. They never touched the ground on private property. But the land owner is claiming they violated his airspace.

Depending on various interpretations and statutes, chances are decent that their air space was violated as they own somewhere 80-500 feet above their land. So it sounds like an issue of conflicting laws and it will be interesting to see how it turns out. This could impact every landowner in the state concerning what they do or do not actually own.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

Here in Pa purple paint on trees and post are no Trespassing signs now. It will be harder for people to take down. So if someone marks an area just for them selves it kinda sucks.

 

[codytrucker]

I've been mulling buying preference points in Wyoming. Really want to hunt there. The more I look into it and find out what ranchers are doing to block access to public game land, the more I think it would be a fool's errand to accumulate points there. When we (Easterners) hear the acreage of public gamelands out west, we are impressed. In fact, we are usually amazed. When you consider access, though, it starts to look very much like a rigged game.

I wouldn't let this issue of corner crossing influence your decision to hunt Wyoming to much . There are millions of acres of public lands , and lots of ranch and farm ground that are enrolled in public access programs .As long as you do some homework you can find plenty of land to hunt on .

 

[courtgreene]

I wouldn't let this issue of corner crossing influence your decision to hunt Wyoming to much . There are millions of acres of public lands , and lots of ranch and farm ground that are enrolled in public access programs .As long as you do some homework you can find plenty of land to hunt on .

That's what I'm hoping. I'm just worried that I would spend to get licensed and all of that, plan to hunt public land, and arrive to find a locked gate. It's a long way to go do a reality check.

 

[mcb]

With the internet, GPS, and their combination in today's mobile phones it is possible to know exactly were you are and exactly who's property you are on.

 

[Patocazador]

I've been mulling buying preference points in Wyoming. Really want to hunt there. The more I look into it and find out what ranchers are doing to block access to public game land, the more I think it would be a fool's errand to accumulate points there. When we (Easterners) hear the acreage of public gamelands out west, we are impressed. In fact, we are usually amazed. When you consider access, though, it starts to look very much like a rigged game.

There is plenty of public land in Wyoming that is readily accessible. Most of the "blocking" of entrances is to BLM land where there is no corridor since BLM land just touches at corners.

National Forest land is very abundant in the central and western parts of Wyoming. Things are quite a bit scarcer in eastern Wyoming but there still is accessible land to hunt.

I hunted Wyoming almost exclusively in the 70's and 80's and drew many tags. What I liked was there was an excellent chance of success if you drew a tag unlike Idaho or Colorado which both sold licenses OTC with no regard to game numbers. Things are different now but I found that Wyoming was the best state to hunt in when compared to Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana. I never hunted Arizona nor New Mexico so I can't say anything about them.

 

[OneFreeTexan]

I live in rural west Michigan and there is so much ‘forested’ land here, that I don’t know who owns it. I do know that two adjoining pieces totaling 1400 acres are state owned, sorta. They are pieces the state or maybe county foreclosed on for taxes. They have no redeeming value, only accessible by adjusting landowners. Or two track.. It is a lot of low land, swamp and creek bottom…Beautiful land but not much value,, so loads of deer, and we hear ‘totes every night,

 

[Switup]

Funny how people don't like hunters.

In my experience it’s a political thing.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

In my experience it’s a political thing.

In my experience, it is previous trash hunters that give the rest of us a bad name. It isn't a political issue, but a genuine bad person issue. I know of several right wing landowners who don't like strange hunters. They have hosted them before with bad results.

 

[Switup]

In my experience, it is previous trash hunters that give the rest of us a bad name. It isn't a political issue, but a genuine bad person issue. I know of several right wing landowners who don't like strange hunters. They have hosted them before with bad results.

Don’t think that’s true. One or two bad hunters can’t give the rest of us a ugly reputation. It’s not rational or possible. There are bad and good people everywhere with different hubbies so one bad person with a gun or hunting doesn’t mean the rest are also
Maniacs.

hunters and shooters tends to be conservative which make certain people looks at them as old school and stay away from them.

 

[earlthegoat2]

In my experience it’s a political thing.

In my experience it’s a stay away from “my” deer (or whichever game) thing.

As a landowner of very small acreage, it’s a “this is my hunting area” thing.

 

[Barbaroja]

I’m glad to see them trying to take steps to address this problem. As pointed out in posts above, with today’s gps technology in your cellphone with On X maps or any other you know exactly who’s land your on.
Little story from yesterday of just how well the gps works. Yesterday while shopping in town I lost my phone at a location but didn’t notice it was gone until about 1 hour later at a different store. I use my wife’s phones gps to track my phone down to someone’s car in the mall parking lot. I was able to track it to the exact car it was in. Called the cops told them the deal, they show up and end up popping the door of this car open (after waiting a bit to see if the person came back out, and getting approval from the local DA) and getting my phone back. Boy do I love living in a small town. I just left a city that won’t even investigate a stolen vehicle (good luck to anyone out in the Portland or area.)

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Just listened to a video by Steve Lehto on YouTube on this on the way in to work this morning. Be interesting to see how this goes in Wyoming.

 

[jmorris]

I know of several right wing landowners who don't like strange hunters. They have hosted them before with bad results.

As a land owner I can attest to this. I invite people to out, it’s up to them as to being invited back.

 

[entropy]

Don’t think that’s true. One or two bad hunters can’t give the rest of us a ugly reputation. It’s not rational or possible. There are bad and good people everywhere with different hubbies so one bad person with a gun or hunting doesn’t mean the rest are also
Maniacs.

hunters and shooters tends to be conservative which make certain people looks at them as old school and stay away from them.

One hunter that doesn't follow common courtesy, and any specific rules set down by a landowner, can indeed ruin it for hunters in an area. It doubles down when a hunter is given permission to hunt some land once, violates that trust and still keeps coming back thinking he had permission in perpetuity. At that point, sheriff or warden is called.
Then there is the hunter who gets permission, but assumes it mean for any and everybody he knows. This usually doesn't go well, as at least one of the group will do something stupid, getting them all kicked off. This sometimes causes animosity between them and the guy that originally got permission, but sometimes he's sent as the one most likely to succeed in getting permission. (Glib tongued BS'er of the bunch.) I've seen it both ways.
Also, most rural landowners, particularly the farmers among them, know each other for miles around, and they don't only talk about the weather and the good biscuits and gravy down at the cafe in town. (I know this part well, I live about 500 feet from the cafe in our town, and frequent it more than is good for my weight and cholesterol) One idiot causing harm or damage will get himself uninvited from a lot of land, if he is known to the landowner and when he isn't, many farmers will scale invites back to family only.

 

[Switup]

One hunter that doesn't follow common courtesy, and any specific rules set down by a landowner, can indeed ruin it for hunters in an area. It doubles down when a hunter is given permission to hunt some land once, violates that trust and still keeps coming back thinking he had permission in perpetuity. At that point, sheriff or warden is called.
Then there is the hunter who gets permission, but assumes it mean for any and everybody he knows. This usually doesn't go well, as at least one of the group will do something stupid, getting them all kicked off. This sometimes causes animosity between them and the guy that originally got permission, but sometimes he's sent as the one most likely to succeed in getting permission. (Glib tongued BS'er of the bunch.) I've seen it both ways.
Also, most rural landowners, particularly the farmers among them, know each other for miles around, and they don't only talk about the weather and the good biscuits and gravy down at the cafe in town. (I know this part well, I live about 500 feet from the cafe in our town, and frequent it more than is good for my weight and cholesterol) One idiot causing harm or damage will get himself uninvited from a lot of land, if he is known to the landowner and when he isn't, many farmers will scale invites back to family only.

Fair point and spoken like you have real life experience on this but won’t share with us

 

[Barbaroja]

We haven’t had our land long but the only person that we let come by is the retired game warden that lives across the street. To be fair it’s a win win. We let him hunt and access public land on the other side of our property (saves him a few miles of hiking) and he brings us to other properties he has permission on, so there is a good give and take. Being the old game warden for the area he knows everybody and all the good hunting spots. Good guy to be hunting buddies with, hell of a Turkey hunter

 

[Patocazador]

As pointed out in posts above, with today’s gps technology in your cellphone with On X maps or any other you know exactly who’s land your on.

Close, but no cigar. I have land that adjoins a state forest which is a WMA. However, the state said that the 100 foot wide area splitting the line was a right-of-way for anyone to use. My lawyer researched it and found that the state was correct EXCEPT for the quarter mile of my property line that fronted the state land. I told the chief forester to show me where I had to allow armed strangers to access part of my land since Florida has an armed trespass law which results in a felony if violated. The state researched it and found that my property had "slipped through" somehow and wasn't included.

Since then several hunters said they were on state land when they weren't and showed me their cellphone maps. I told them to use the state land on the other side of the fence (the other 50 feet). Last year the state bulldozed a road adjacent to my fence for hunter access. The hunters had access all along but preferred to use my road rather than fight through brush on the uncleared state land.

The cellphone maps have not been updated since to my knowledge.