Oregon To Legalize Corner Crossing

 

If Oregon legalizes corner crossing will other 9th Circuit States like Montana and Idaho follow suit? 

If you’ve hunted the West long enough, you’ve stared at a map and muttered something under your breath that probably shouldn’t be printed when you see a corner-locked piece of public in your hunt area. Checkerboard public and private land has a way of doing that.

That frustration is exactly why a bipartisan group of Oregon lawmakers is bringing Senate File 1545 to the 2026 legislative session. The goal is simple, and honestly overdue: clarify that people can legally corner cross where public land touches public land at a corner, even if private land fills the other two squares.

This isn’t about breaking fences or wandering across private ground. It’s about accessing land the public already owns without playing legal roulette every time a GPS dot hits an intersection.

Why This Matters

Corner crossing has been litigated heavily in the 10th Circuit, where courts have leaned toward allowing it under certain conditions. Oregon, though, sits in the 9th Circuit, so the legal gray area is still very gray here.

Oregon has roughly half a million acres of corner-locked public land. Some of that is out east near places like Bend and Burns, but a massive chunk of the checkerboard lives in southern Oregon, between Klamath Falls and Grants Pass, which just so happens to be some of the best blacktail country in the state.

Oregon has actually done a pretty respectable job with travel management and access agreements in parts of this checkerboard. But access can disappear overnight. 

Hunters saw that recently, when the timber giant Manulife pulled its lands from the traditionally free public access program, effectively locking up large chunks of otherwise reachable public ground.

That’s the uncomfortable truth: access based on goodwill is fragile. Access clarified in statute is not.

This Could Be The Template

Senate File 1545 in Oregon is bipartisan and being shaped with input from hunting groups and conservation nonprofits who understand that access and respect for private land aren’t opposing ideas; they’re linked.

Corner crossing, when clearly defined, actually reduces conflict. Hunters know the rules. Landowners know where the lines are. Game wardens aren’t left guessing. Everyone stops arguing at the map pin and gets back to living their lives.

And here’s the bigger picture: if Oregon gets this right, it becomes a template. Other Western states stuck in the same legal limbo could point to Oregon and say, “That. Let’s do that.”  The 9th Circuit includes western hunting hotbeds like Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Washington! A pro-corner crossing decision in Oregon could open up a lot of previously inaccessible hunting ground in these states too! 

For hunters, this is one of those moments where paying attention matters. Bills like this don’t usually fail because they’re bad ideas—they fail because the people who benefit most never speak up.

So read it. Follow it. Talk about it at the local diner or the range. Public land doesn’t stay public by accident, and access to it doesn’t defend itself.

This is Oregon taking a proactive swing instead of waiting for a court fight. That alone makes Senate File 1545 worth watching closely.