In response to the Carbon County corner hopping case Wyoming legislators are currently seeking to shore up the law so a concrete definition can be formed around what constitutes “corner crossing”.
HB0103, if passed, would amend Wyoming’s hunter trespass laws seeking to eliminate a gray area in the current law regarding passing through the airspace above private property.
As things stand, interpretations of Wyoming’s current law blow either way when it comes to air space. Private property-rights advocates claim that it is impossible to not pass through privately owned airspace when corner crossing, thus hunter or criminal trespass occurs during corner hopping.
At the moment HB0103 has 11 sponsors and is moving forward in the Wyoming legislature and has been fitted with teeth to the tune of up to $1000 and six months in jail for persons found guilty… IF it gets passed.
All in all, the Carbon County corner hopping case continues to roll on and “like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives,”.
Read More:
https://wyofile.com/corner-crossing-bill-emerges-as-gf-commissioner-pulls-license-donation/
7 comments
Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. The suggested language is the same as its always been. Trespassing is illegal. Its fantastic they came up with language to say if you step on someones property your trespassing. So if i fly my plane over your house now – I’m trespassing? Amazing how these morons will not FULLY address the issue here but instead skirt around things and re-state language. Simply change language to say the public can cross at all corners of American Owned Public land and NO Landowner may restrict crossing corners to preclude access to Americans Land that they own.
Make them pay Property Tax on all of the Public Land that they block off at Recreational Land Rates. Problem solved.
They don’t pay didily squat for property taxes on land they own, and grazing fees on BLM and State lands are a joke too. Not to mention all the other freebies they get from the State and the Federal Government that we the taxpayers get the bill for.
Strange, it doesn’t seem like rocket science for example if two pieces of BLM ground are connected by their corners there has to be a continuous connection between the two so why couldn’t you cross at the connecting corners? Just another liberal lawyer looking for $$ and a selfish landowners who want all the public ground to themselves.
On what planet does a landowner control the airspace over their property? I can legally fly an aircraft one foot above the property, and I should also be able to lift my foot over that same property legally, as long as I don’t place a foot on the property. Public property access needs to be facilitated, not decided in favor of property owners blocking access.
If a law is passed, it will be in favor of the landowner/rancher in Wyoming. The Wyoming legislature is top heavy with Ranchers/Outfitters and they vote for bills that are in their own interests, not the sportman’s. Wait and see. Just like the Wilderness law that forbids non-residents from hunting public ground, passed by lawmakers that cater to the outfitters and landowners.
The way I see it, this issue has nothing to do with trespassing on private land. It’s simply about restricting access to public lands by all persons other than the owners of the adjoining private parcels and those they choose to give permission to. It’s complete BS. Public land should be accessible to all and private land owners should not have exclusive rights to it. Call it as it truly is and stop avoiding the real issue here. If corner hopping is not allowed, maybe these public lands should be made off limits to all, including the adjoining private land owners? Hmm, bet that would change the narrative.