Fresh Tracks Weekly - Montana Corner Crossing

[Big Fin]

We produce this weekly news update we call Fresh Tracks Weekly. This week we cover the Montana corner crossing topic, with some of my editorial about our elected and appointed officials demonstrating a high level of conflict of interest as the Executive Branch pursues their effort to define the legality of corner crossing rather than letting the courts decice.

The CC discussion starts at 9:55.

 

[Original Minn]

Just finished watching and thank you! I really appreciate these discussions. It's nice to be able to get the skinny on all these items that threaten our outdoor passions.

 

[Eric Albus]

I’m in Glasgow at
The PLPW meeting waiting on the corner crossing discussion

 

[Elky Welky]

Thank you @Big Fin for accurately conveying our position on this issue. You even said some of the things we were saying before it was published today!

Backed into a corner: Why we are suing FWP | Opinion

Sometimes, despite every good-faith effort to find common ground, the only path to resolution runs through a courthouse. Montanans have reached that point on corner crossing — and Montana Backcountry

billingsgazette.com

Backed into a Corner: Why We are Suing FWP

Sometimes, despite every good-faith effort to find common ground, the only path to resolution runs through a courthouse. Montanans have reached that point on corner crossing — and Montana Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, joined by Public Land and Waters Access, has filed suit against Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) to protect what we have always fought for: the public's right and opportunity to hunt and fish on public land.

So what is corner crossing? When public and private land are arranged in a checkerboard pattern, some public parcels touch only at a single corner point with nothing else connecting them to the rest of the public land system. Corner crossing is the act of stepping directly from one public parcel to the other at that shared corner, never setting foot on private land. More than 870,000 acres of Montana's publicly owned land can only be reached this way. Without corner crossing, that land would be locked away from all of us — effectively creating exclusive access for the benefit of the adjacent landowners, not the public trust.

FWP has known about this for decades. In the early 2000s, the agency decided it couldn't actually claim corner crossing was lawful — but because the physical act was de minimis (momentary and fleeting), it adopted a policy of non-enforcement unless a clear trespass accompanied it. This policy was reasonable and workable. What followed was not.

Everything changed when four men used a ladder in Wyoming to cross from public land to public land, and were subsequently prosecuted by the state and sued by the adjoining landowner for doing so. They were first acquitted in the criminal court, and the lawsuit went all the way to the 10th Circuit, wherein that Federal Appeals Court determined in 2023 that Corner Crossing was legal. Sadly, Montana is not in the 10th Circuit; we are in the 9th and therefore that ruling is persuasive, but not legally binding. The FWP director at the time, Dustin Temple, then declared without authority that corner crossing was “unlawful” in Montana.

Simultaneously, Montana BHA contacted FWP after new hunter FAQs on the agency's website flatly declared corner crossing “illegal” — a claim with no legal basis. FWP communications director Greg Lemon acknowledged the language was inaccurate and said it would be corrected. Days later, we were told FWP would not change its position. No explanation was offered. No valid case law was provided.

That same year, a hunter in Broadwater County was criminally charged for corner crossing — caught on trail cameras stepping from one public parcel to another at a textbook corner. The Montana Attorney General's office took over the prosecution. In 2024, they moved to dismiss. They said they couldn't prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, and Montanans were still left without answers.

In 2025, Montana BHA worked with Representative Josh Seckinger on HB 763, a bill to compensate willing landowners for allowing through-access to public land at corners. We extended an olive branch to our friends in agriculture and the Farm Bureau to protect leaseholder interests as part of the bill. The bill passed with broad bipartisan support. Yet when asked about what has been done to promote the program, we haven’t received satisfactory answers from the department. To our knowledge and to date, no landowner has been enrolled.

Late last year, BHA and partners sat down directly with FWP attorneys and law enforcement to seek clarity on their position. When asked about the 10th Circuit's ruling, FWP's attorneys admitted they hadn't read it. When we asked how many Montanans had been prosecuted for corner crossing in 2025, they couldn't name one.

Weeks later, FWP Director Christy Clark issued an internal memo declaring corner crossing unlawful, and in a major departure from prior enforcement guidance, directed game wardens to issue citations — with no public notice, no comment period, and no legal authority cited. Further follow ups and requests for clarity and accuracy were rebuffed or ignored. For us, this was the final straw.

BHA was founded on a simple belief: that hunting and fishing on our wild public lands are worth fighting for. And PLWA has a 40 year history of fighting for public access to public lands and waters in Montana. Every public acre locked away from public access is an acre lost to the next generation of Montana hunters and anglers. Filing suit against our home state was not our first choice, in fact it was the last option when faced with loss of access to 871,000 acres. Every season is some kid's first and an old dog's last, it's impossible to create stewards of the land without access to it. So we're asking the court to provide what FWP would not: clarity, accountability, and a path back to the public land that belongs to everyone. Now—and for all who come after us.

Montana Backcountry Hunters & Anglers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to our wild public lands, waters, and wildlife. Join us at https://www.backcountryhunters.org/Get-Involved/Chapters/Montana/Join.

PLWA is a membership-based Montana non-profit dedicated to maintaining and defending access to Montana's public lands and waters. Learn more or join today at plwa.org.