Colorado corner crossing legislation proposal

I received it from a guy I know who has been working on the issue since at least November and lined up the current sponsor. At the outset he was and continues trying to find a demo co-sponsor

I believe he just joined HT at my suggestion, when I told him I would post it. So he might weigh in but I know he is out of pocket for a week perhaps.
I'm quite surprised there aren't pro recreation, public land advocacy dems lined up to cosponsor. Time to correspond w them! Any leads who I should be targeting on the Dem side? Thanks in advance.
I’ll bring it up to Denver BHA - our monthly meeting isn’t for a couple weeks but I’ll reach out to the group in the meantime. I have to imagine it’s on someone’s radar at a minimum.

@Khunter - assume that you’re OK if I share the pdf you posted?
 
I’ll bring it up to Denver BHA - our monthly meeting isn’t for a couple weeks but I’ll reach out to the group in the meantime. I have to imagine it’s on someone’s radar at a minimum.

@Khunter - assume that you’re OK if I share the pdf you posted?
of course. please do share. BHA should not be on the sidelines on this.
 
I guess my initial reaction to this draft bill is why not wait for the civil case in WY to run its course? We've waited a couple hundred years, why scramble with new legislation now when the court is hopefully going to settle the question (or at least make a fairly large step).
With legislation landowners can get some of the things they would like in the bill. I personally would want crossing only at the marked corner, ladders if a fence is at the corner and big increase in trespassing fines. Not going to get any of that with a court case.
 
I don't know about ladders. Sure would be an impediment to access if you could only use a ladder at fenced corners and that corner happened to be 5 or 10 miles from where you can park a truck!
 
With legislation landowners can get some of the things they would like in the bill. I personally would want crossing only at the marked corner, ladders if a fence is at the corner and big increase in trespassing fines. Not going to get any of that with a court case.
I wish every landowner and hunter were this logical...would be so easy to come up with something everyone could live with.

I would also go for foot traffic only at the corners as well.

Unmarked corners could be surveyed at the expense of Sportsmen if they wanted access across the corner.
 
All US citizens should have access to that property which we own. The Forest Service allows long driveways to access private inholdings, I don't see any reason the same isn't also possible for public land. Birders, hikers, sheep fornicators, everyone. The US govt should also be generous in offering consolidation plans so private land owners can own contiguous property, and so can the citizens of the US.
 
Bill has been edited and introduced can be found and tracked here.
have also attached this current draft but the above link is the place to track it and any edits going forward.

It is assigned to the Ag committee. A death knell?

No schedule yet for committee hearing but will need a lot of positive testimony from individuals and groups.
 

Attachments

  • 2023a_1066_01 01.20.22.pdf
    145.9 KB · Views: 5
"OR TOUCH A FENCE ON OR OTHER IMPROVEMENT TO THE PRIVATELY OWNED LAND"

Now that's interesting but probably necessary for private interests. Makes it pretty much necessary to bring a ladder in with you because how can anyone know who erected a fence..... I suppose if the fence has a public land agency sign on it then that would make it clear that the improvement is a public improvement and not a private. I could live with that. Guess OnX will have to start mapping public vs private fences!
 
I'm excited to see this at minimum just cause it means they are talking about it. I'll send as many emails as I have to to get this through. Thanks for posting it.
 
I’ll bring it up to Denver BHA - our monthly meeting isn’t for a couple weeks but I’ll reach out to the group in the meantime. I have to imagine it’s on someone’s radar at a minimum.

@Khunter - assume that you’re OK if I share the pdf you posted?
I've traded some notes with leadership and they are aware of the bill and are tracking the progress. Similar to the status of the bill itself as of yesterday, there isn't a lot more concrete information out there right now.

Personally speaking, I don't think it's got a chance in current form, but will watch closely. I am a stones throw from Rep Bradley's district, will send her (and my rep) an email today, as I'm very interested to learn what stakeholders they've engaged with (e.g. CPW, Ag community, et al)
 
I think its great the bill is out there, but for it to get traction, there needs to be wayyyy more pre-work done.

Like has been stated, get the stakeholders together, get the bill as clean as you can right off, get the support of both parties if possible, get the right person to introduce the legislation as well, with several cosponsors.

Not sure much, if any of that has taken place.
 
Response from a BHA program manager:

"This bill is likely DOA. It's being brought by a freshman legislator and doesn't have any co-sponsors. We've had multiple conversations with them and while we absolutely support making corner crossing clearly legal and are working harder on this issue than anybody, we need to go about doing this in a strategic manner. From our conversations we don't believe the bill sponsor has the support needed from key stakeholders to get this across the finish line. It's important that legislation like this is approached strategically. Efforts to get legislation successfully passed usually begin in August of the prior year. If the bill is introduced and receives a committee hearing we will be engaging on it, but it's not clear yet if this will happen."
 
Response from a BHA program manager:

"This bill is likely DOA. It's being brought by a freshman legislator and doesn't have any co-sponsors. We've had multiple conversations with them and while we absolutely support making corner crossing clearly legal and are working harder on this issue than anybody, we need to go about doing this in a strategic manner. From our conversations we don't believe the bill sponsor has the support needed from key stakeholders to get this across the finish line. It's important that legislation like this is approached strategically. Efforts to get legislation successfully passed usually begin in August of the prior year. If the bill is introduced and receives a committee hearing we will be engaging on it, but it's not clear yet if this will happen."
Here is what I am hearing:

"Now that actual legislation is officially in the works, which we recognize is the best solution for finally settling a long-standing, contentious but ambiguous issue that we claim to represent our members on, we will be sitting this out until there is a super high probability it will pass. At that point, we will jump in, attach our name to it and claim victory. We realize this needs stakeholder involvement, but refuse to promote this to our base of 40,000+ members, most of whom use federal public land regularly, and many of whom actually live in Colorado. Please continue sending your checks, wearing First Lite and watching MeatEater."
 
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I think its great the bill is out there, but for it to get traction, there needs to be wayyyy more pre-work done.

Like has been stated, get the stakeholders together, get the bill as clean as you can right off, get the support of both parties if possible, get the right person to introduce the legislation as well, with several cosponsors.

Not sure much, if any of that has taken place.
Yep, caught most by surprise with it. Not a successful strategy.
 

A Good Plan, Violently Executed Now, Is Better Than a Perfect Plan Next Week.”​


― Gen. Patton

;)
If you even have a good plan, I agree...don't think there is one in this case.

I agree that perfection shouldn't be the enemy of the good.
 
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