Montana hunters need help getting corner crossing law changed

[JLS]

This is a map of land ownership northeast of Moses Lake. White denotes private land; blue denotes state land, and yellow denotes BLM. There are several public access points. Once on any public land parcel, one could cross onto other public parcels for miles if corner crossing were legal.

Yep, and in those cases this would apply but in Montana there are few places like this.

Absolutely not true.  There are areas all over Montana where this would be a benefit.

[Echomules]

I can open just about any page in the montana gazetteer and find places where this would apply.

I would have to agree with this statement.

[huntnphool]

This is a map of land ownership northeast of Moses Lake. White denotes private land; blue denotes state land, and yellow denotes BLM. There are several public access points. Once on any public land parcel, one could cross onto other public parcels for miles if corner crossing were legal.

Yep, and in those cases this would apply but in Montana there are few places like this.

Absolutely not true.  There are areas all over Montana where this would be a benefit.

I guess it depends on your definition of all over. I can guarantee you there are way more acres in Montana that are corner joined that you can't access than acres that are corner joined that you can. Of course we are talking about areas surounded mostly by private land and not the huge expanses of NF, DNR etc.

[JLS]

Those who say this will do very little for hunters in montana must not have much experience hunting public land in montana. I thought you hunted a good bit in montana  phool?  There are tons of places where this would help hunters, hell I can open just about any page in the montana gazetteer and find places where this would apply.

I didn't say there wasn't, I said there isn't many. I believe people are thinking this will allow them access to public land that is landlocked by private, it won't!!! If you can find a section where a road goes through it that has a adjoining corner section then I see nothing wrong with it, I know several land owners, including myself, that doesn't have a problem with it, but another reason land owners are opposed is because it will be abused with people accessing other areas that are land locked but do not have corner sections. You all know it will happen, lets not get it twisted.

I don't see where anyone said that this would allow people to directly access landlocked parcels from the road.  However it will allow them to access from legal easements.

I can't even begin to fathom how you can say that this is not that big of an issue for Montana.  I could name you location after location and county after county.  I won't, because anyone with a Gazetteer can easily see it.

To say that more legal access shouldn't be granted because people might trespass is absolutely silly.  People trespass right now.  Why should we withhold what should be legal access because of the wrong actions of a small segment of the population?

Heaven forbid we should allow the unwashed public access to public ground.

[JLS]

This is a map of land ownership northeast of Moses Lake. White denotes private land; blue denotes state land, and yellow denotes BLM. There are several public access points. Once on any public land parcel, one could cross onto other public parcels for miles if corner crossing were legal.

Yep, and in those cases this would apply but in Montana there are few places like this.

Absolutely not true.  There are areas all over Montana where this would be a benefit.

I guess it depends on your definition of all over. I can guarantee you there are way more acres in Montana that are corner joined that you can't access than acres that are corner joined that you can. Of course we are talking about areas surounded mostly by private land and not the huge expanses of NF, DNR etc.

I don't care if there are more inaccessible acres than accessible acres.  If that's the crux of your argument fine, but it's really irrelevant to the fact that this would allow a significant amount of access to public lands.

[huntnphool]

This is a map of land ownership northeast of Moses Lake. White denotes private land; blue denotes state land, and yellow denotes BLM. There are several public access points. Once on any public land parcel, one could cross onto other public parcels for miles if corner crossing were legal.

Yep, and in those cases this would apply but in Montana there are few places like this.

Absolutely not true.  There are areas all over Montana where this would be a benefit.

I guess it depends on your definition of all over. I can guarantee you there are way more acres in Montana that are corner joined that you can't access than acres that are corner joined that you can. Of course we are talking about areas surounded mostly by private land and not the huge expanses of NF, DNR etc.

I don't care if there are more inaccessible acres than accessible acres.  If that's the crux of your argument fine, but it's really irrelevant to the fact that this would allow a significant amount of access to public lands.

What general area do you hunt?

[JLS]

I've hunted regions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

[huntnphool]

I don't see where anyone said that this would allow people to directly access landlocked parcels from the road.  However it will allow them to access from legal easements.

I can't even begin to fathom how you can say that this is not that big of an issue for Montana.  I could name you location after location and county after county.  I won't, because anyone with a Gazetteer can easily see it.

To say that more legal access shouldn't be granted because people might trespass is absolutely silly.  People trespass right now.  Why should we withhold what should be legal access because of the wrong actions of a small segment of the population?

Heaven forbid we should allow the unwashed public access to public ground.

I don't mind a good debate but that should not include trying to put words in my mouth. I never said it wasn't a big issue for Montana.

If you go back and read what I said you will see that I don't have a issue with it, I only stated that I can think of reasons why land owners would oppose it.

[huntnphool]

I've hunted regions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

So have I. Pick a area you wanted to hunt but you were not allowed access because of corner crossing and post it up here for us to see if you would.

[JLS]

I've hunted regions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

So have I. Pick a area you wanted to hunt but you were not allowed access because of corner crossing and post it up here for us to see if you would.

North part of bridgers

[huntnphool]

I've hunted regions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

So have I. Pick a area you wanted to hunt but you were not allowed access because of corner crossing and post it up here for us to see if you would.

North part of bridgers

Can you post a pic to show people where you couldn't access?

[JLS]

No.

[huntnphool]

No.

How about one of the other areas you were hunting around that you couldn't access because of corner crossing.

[JLS]

I don't have any of my maps in my computer, they are all old school paper.  I have no interest in scanning them in so I can post them here.

It seems you are intent on amount of acreage.  I'm not.  As you well know, a quality hunting spot might be 640 acres or less.

And, I'm not trying to put words in your mouth so it was an unfair extrapolation on my part to equate your opinions to it not being a big deal.

I don't have any interest in creating a laundry list of places that this would affect.  Your perception of affecting very many places is obviously different than mine.  If that's the case there's no point in arguing, no one has to be right.

[huntnphool]

It seems you are intent on amount of acreage.  I'm not.  As you well know, a quality hunting spot might be 640 acres or less.

And, I'm not trying to put words in your mouth so it was an unfair extrapolation on my part to equate your opinions to it not being a big deal.

I don't have any interest in creating a laundry list of places that this would affect.  Your perception of affecting very many places is obviously different than mine.

Anytime you want to grab your maps, I'll grab mine and we can go over them over a beer or two, I think I can show you that in the grand scheme of things this will not open as much land as most people believe it will.

I can show you loads of corner joined sections of public land that still will not be accessable, more so than land that will be accessable with the passing on HB235 is my point.

So to reiterate, I don't have a problem with it and understand it will open up access to some previously locked land.