I was taking his question less as intent to block a corner, but more just a standard situation where the private sections are fenced (pastures, etc), so the corner is naturally a fence junction. I would think the legal way to maneuver that would be crossing on the corner (which likely has braces and should be a reasonably easy spot to cross), but I think the question is more whether a ladder is a requirement or whether climbing the existing fence is legal?
Would it be legal for a private organization like BHA to mark selectively chosen corners with a T-post? I would donate time and money to that cause as well. It is probably cost-prohibitive in WY because of the land ownership pattern, but in Montana it could be interesting. I guess the landowner could remove the post. You can see I haven't really thought this through.
2 posts set on the adjacent public land corners. Step from one to the other.Would it be legal for a private organization like BHA to mark selectively chosen corners with a T-post? I would donate time and money to that cause as well. It is probably cost-prohibitive in WY because of the land ownership pattern, but in Montana it could be interesting. I guess the landowner could remove the post. You can see I haven't really thought this through.
How about it @BuzzH can BHA mark all those corners? OMG...Would it be legal for a private organization like BHA to mark selectively chosen corners with a T-post? I would donate time and money to that cause as well. It is probably cost-prohibitive in WY because of the land ownership pattern, but in Montana it could be interesting. I guess the landowner could remove the post. You can see I haven't really thought this through.
Gerald, how will the landowner find the unmarked corner to mark it?
And not all landowners are like Eshelman. I think there’s some greedy ones that give all of them a bad name. I talked with a rancher that owns a BIG ranch(even by Wyoming standards) and asked him how he felt about corner crossing. He responded that he was all for it because it’s not his land but ours. It was a refreshing conversation. Definitely gave me a sense that this corner crossing issue is leaning in favor of we the people being able to access our land. It’s up to us from here
I sense sarcasm. I'm not asking BHA to mark them all. That would be ridiculous. Sorry if it sounded that way.
Hire a surveyor?
I would think that some common sense applies here. We just can't expect the landowner to leave a wide open gap over a corner (uncontained livestock, etc.) and I wouldn't think there would be an issue with someone climbing over the fence and touching some private property barbwire. Proper fencing shouldn't be considered an unlawful closure yet there should be some latitude by the landowner when an individual crosses over. Otherwise, heck yes, if an Eshelman-type wants to play hardball, each 4-way fenced corner should have a blaring gap and to hell with the rancher's cow
Yes.
Agree, the MT AG is not going to prosecute a case where the hunters in question follow the same process as the hunters is the WY case. The MT AG is going to wait until he has a case that has a better chance of getting a different ruling at the 9th. He would like nothing better than to get this to SCOTUS, and the best way for that to happen is he wins at the 9th. This is why all the talk of close enough is a little scary.
Good luck with that. That's the same argument that Iron Bar made regarding Leo sheep. They were comparing "similar" but very different cases, how did that work out for them?
Wouldn't you think MT Legislature trying to pass a law expressly making it illegal would open it up to a lawsuit using the 10th Circuit ruling as precedent?
Really? It was the wife of a local landowner that crossed a corner, with no pin or cap, about a decade ago in central Wyoming in front of the NR landowner who had an actual elk refuge due to corners. She promptly shot a bull elk on public land.
It would have to be surveyed to have any real value, from a legal perspective. I highly doubt there are many landowners out there wanting to pay to survey corners
DM’d you a pic.
I think you're underestimating the very significant impact of a case having slightly different facts that allow a court to make a completely opposite decision than the 10th Cir came to. Ideally, there would be a case in MT, or some other state in the 9th, that's virtually the same - federal land corners, use of a ladder to avoid physical touching of any private ground, and honest and forthright corner crossers who did everything "by the book." I don't disagree hunters in MT need to go on the offensive, but the case needs to be right one with the right people.
AG would choose not to prosecute the case (cause no law was broken), and then continue to claim its illegal.
The case in Albany County that judge Castor tossed on corner crossing was another big one. Not sure who that guy was that crossed the corner, but he wasn't hiding under the bed either. He crossed a corner, killed I believe a deer, and that case prompted the AG opinion that corner crossing did not constitute trespass to hunt.
