Corner Crossings... A Case for Access?

Hello Everyone!

This week I’m bringing you more on a land access issue that’s pitting recreationalists against landowners across Montana. Even though the test case stems from a Wyoming incident, the resolution will reverberate across the West.

See you next week for more fun!

Thanks,

Charley Pike

In 2020 a group of hunters from Missouri tested the “corner-crossing” access issue in Wyoming. Using a GPS mapping program and a folding ladder they crossed over a fence from one corner of land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to another.

The consequences of that act, now slogging through the U.S. court system, could have a far ranging impact across the West and affect already tense relationships between landowners and hunters.

The pending decision from the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in the corner-crossing trespass suit against four Missouri hunters will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Missouri hunters were reported by the Elk Mountain Ranch’s manager and tagged by local law enforcement for criminal trespass. A local jury acquitted the four men, but the ranch owner decided to sue them on civil charges in U.S. District Court.

The landowner argued the hunters, by crossing from one corner of public land to another, trespassed on private property—even though they were crossing through “airspace.”

The landowner claimed in his argument that by allowing the hunters corner-crossing access his private land value was diminished—therefore in effect the Court’s ruling established a “taking” by the Federal government.

 The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution reads in part as follows: “Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

“We certainly believe in the principle that a landowner not only owns the surface, but owns a reasonable amount of the airspace above that surface,” said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.

But the hunters won again in U.S. District Court. So the landowner, Fred Eshelman, a businessman from North Carolina, decided to appeal to the next highest court—the 10th Circuit Court in Denver.

Though Montana is not part of the 10th Circuit, the court’s soon-to-be-announced decision could extend beyond the six states over which the court has jurisdiction—unless it’s appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

For now, in Montana, corner crossing is frowned on by local law enforcement—and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. They’re warning hunters and anglers not to try it—not yet.

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