WA Senator Introduces Trespass Fluorescent Orange Bill For Second Time in a Year

[Curly]

If you aren't trespassing, you're not trespassing.  Doesn't matter if someone posted it illegally with signs or orange paint. 

[headshot5]

If you aren't trespassing, you're not trespassing.  Doesn't matter if someone posted it illegally with signs or orange paint.

   This would be a big win for private landowners.  If you as a hunter know you are on public property etc, then it wouldn't be trespassing.   Putting up signs sucks, and trying to keep people from stealing/removing signs is a pain.  Along with the fact that signs cost more than a stripe of orange paint.   

[NoBark]

How many shades of orange are orange enough to count?

[CAMPMEAT]

I think if WE are FORCED to flag/mark our property, so should the state. Every piece they own, everything.

And how would you fund it?  It could run tens of millions.

And I don't think anyone is really being forced to mark their property in either bill.

Jail inmates, welfare recipients to start with. They're not being forced, but once anything gets into law, it's hard to get rid of it.

[bobcat]

You won't be charged with trespassing without a complaint by the landowner. So just having some orange paint on some trees doesn't automatically mean a person hunting on that land will be cited for trespassing. 

[bigtex]

You won't be charged with trespassing without a complaint by the landowner. So just having some orange paint on some trees doesn't automatically mean a person hunting on that land will be cited for trespassing.

Or there is an agreement with the landowner and law enforcement agencies to cite those they find trespassing. It's a common misconception that an officer can basically see someone behind a no trespassing sign and cite/arrest them. There must be some direction from the landowner for the officer to pursue charges.

[bigtex]

Bigtex,  what's the deal? Is it that paint lasts where signs rot or get stolen and so paint is more efficient or is there some other angle here?  If it just allows an orange block to represent no trespass that seems unobjectionable since the vote isn't close to unanimous I figure there's more to it?

Sheldon comes from an area with a lot of timberland so I think you can see the connection there.

Realistically, this will be very difficult to enforce because of the public education aspect. Lets say this bill becomes law, most likely WDFW will do a press release and include it in the hunting/fishing regs. But what about the other users of timberlands such as hikers and bikers? How will they be educated that an orange stripe is equivalent to a "no trespassing" sign.

In public safety you used to have agencies use codes (radio talk such as 10-4, code 7, etc) but after some terrible massive events such as 9/11 agencies learned that each jurisdiction has different codes and they had a hard time talking to eachother, even if they are all law enforcement. So you saw a big push to go towards "plain language/English" so no more radio codes. Well for me the orange stripe is like a radio code and a "no trespassing" sign is obviously plain language/English. Only those "in the know" will know what an orange stripe is code for, it's pretty obvious what a "no trespassing" sign means...

[smalldog]

Buy you a good GPS  and the hunting maps for the state you are hunting. They have a tracking system in them and if called the police  by a landowner because you are trespassing, then you can show that you never walked on their property.  I know it works because my brother and I had the cops called on us. We showed the police our GPS and where we hunted that day near this guys property. The cop said that is good enough for me and let it go. Garmon has a great map system and the game wardens and police like that system also. In Eastern Washington you have a lot of people that will try and post property that is not theirs so you won't hunt it. I have called the police a couple of times over the years and had the signs taken down. If you hunt around Kettle Falls and Coville area or anywhere in that corner of the state you will run into that once and a while.  The map system that I use has all the private landowners names and state,blm and timber companies boundaries and you are able to hunt land that barley touches a public road with enough room to park and it might open up to about a 3 mile area farther back in. I have hunted such spots and had a landowner come a yell a me for hunting on his property. I just show him my GPS and the tracking system and where I walk and showed him his  boundaries and the state land boundaries and they calm down and are not mad anymore. It really works good if you go to the landowners and show them what you have so they don't jump to conclusions.  Some people in that corner of the state love to take down the state land markers and post the land, so play it safe and get a GPS. The peace of mind is worth the money.

[luckyman]

It makes no difference. You need to know what land you're hunting regardless of paint. Orange paint would just be a warning that you may be trespassing, not that you're surely trespassing. If you're unsure you shouldn't be there in the first place. 

[andrew_in_idaho]

I wonder would some be more in favor of this if along with its passage they required landowners to post/paint, in order to be able to prosecute for trespass

[bobcat]

I wonder would some be more in favor of this if along with its passage they required landowners to post/paint, in order to be able to prosecute for trespass

It already is like that. Our law is basically the same as Idaho- if it's not posted, fenced, or cultivated, it's not trespassing.

[Curly]

Your not listening bigtex or bob.Your season is over just because some jack wagon paints some orange stripes on some trees and says your trespassing,Thats that,seen it in Goldendale dog gone it.Had to leave the property,told the LEO it was public land but didnt want an argument and was told I had to leave or was gonna be charged with trespass,Then about 2 weeks later finally got it all cleared up I was on public land the caller was a defender of wildlife acting on behalf of someone in California that owned property adjacent to the land I was on.No orange paint mind you but all the same turned out exactly how I am saying it did.

And see, that is my point.  Orange paint or signs makes no difference if someone is going to illegally post something.  I just can't really find anything wrong with allowing property owners to use paint instead of signs.  I know that people tear down signs and simply trespass; it would be much harder for them to do that with paint.

[fireweed]

I would be ok with signs AND paint, not just paint--and with a specified distance between them.  Right now, timberland must be Conspicuously posted--but the law does not define that.  Perhaps a sign every XX feet with orange paint every  XX feet in between. 

[Curly]

Your not listening bigtex or bob.Your season is over just because some jack wagon paints some orange stripes on some trees and says your trespassing,Thats that,seen it in Goldendale dog gone it.Had to leave the property,told the LEO it was public land but didnt want an argument and was told I had to leave or was gonna be charged with trespass,Then about 2 weeks later finally got it all cleared up I was on public land the caller was a defender of wildlife acting on behalf of someone in California that owned property adjacent to the land I was on.No orange paint mind you but all the same turned out exactly how I am saying it did.

That's an instance where it would be nice if you had a map or GPS to prove to the officer why you are sure it is public and the other guy is wrong.

[JimmyHoffa]

Your not listening bigtex or bob.Your season is over just because some jack wagon paints some orange stripes on some trees and says your trespassing,Thats that,seen it in Goldendale dog gone it.Had to leave the property,told the LEO it was public land but didnt want an argument and was told I had to leave or was gonna be charged with trespass,Then about 2 weeks later finally got it all cleared up I was on public land the caller was a defender of wildlife acting on behalf of someone in California that owned property adjacent to the land I was on.No orange paint mind you but all the same turned out exactly how I am saying it did.

That's an instance where it would be nice if you had a map or GPS to prove to the officer why you are sure it is public and the other guy is wrong.

But with land sales/trades happening often enough, the map/GPS might not be updated.  What if the officer responds on a Friday afternoon and is trying to get to the bottom of it---would have to wait until Monday and however long the various phone tags take to get an answer.  By then you could have lost four days in that area.