Cornered: Western Sportsmen Trapped by Arcane Regulation Prohibiting Public Access at Corner Crossings

By Patriot Outdoor News

You’re pinched by a corner crossing, and out of luck. The elk are as safe as if they were standing on inaccessible private land.

You greet 5 a.m. with your boots on, headed uphill. By dawn, you are miles from camp and have a band of 12 elk in your binocular. They’re grazing lazily away from you along the opposite slope, flirting within rifle range in the early morning quiet. And like you, they are standing on public land.

There are no fences or physical obstacles separating you from the herd, and you could walk to them without ever setting foot on private property. Moving into shooting position, however, could earn you a trespass charge.

Because standing in your way is an invisible, dimensionless barrier—the point at which two parcels of private land and two parcels of public land meet corner to corner, like the black and white squares of a chessboard. You’re pinched by a corner crossing, and out of luck. The elk are as safe as if they were standing on inaccessible private land.

If the situation sounds painfully familiar, you’re not alone. According to Landlocked, a GIS-based public access mapping study conducted by the Center for Western Priorities in 2013, more …read more

Source:: Patriot Outdoor News