Billygoat
That reminds me of an outfitter/rancher in an area where I hunt- There is a section of state land bordering some of his land and every year he gets special posters from the state to put up saying that the land is "temporarily closed" for three days while he is working cattle. Then he doesn't date the posters and leaves them up indefinitely during hunting season.
When I talked to a warden about it, he looked at me as though I had asked him to write a formula for the orbit of the moon using Chinese calculus. Fred
Fred-
I empathize with your *working cattle story*. I assume that when you use the term "state land" you are referring to trust lands which are managed to generate revenue for schools. If so, the use of trust lands in MT is administered by the lands division of the Dept of Natural Resources and Conservation. Here's the link to the DNRC web page for the lands division:
[b][color:#3333FF]MT DNRC Lands Div[/color][/b]; and here is the link to DNRC's STATE LAND SURFACE MANAGEMENT RULES AND POLICIES document:
[b][color:#000099]MT Trust Lands Rules/Policies Document[/color][/b].
The DNRC rules & policies document contains lots of good information; including approximately 35 pages covering issues related to the leasing of state lands. It also includes specific policies on the use of roads on state lands, and the illegal posting of state trust lands. The document also contains the phone numbers for all of the local DNRC management offices around the state.
I share your frustrations about the misuse of state trust lands in Montana. However, DNRC is the agency responsible for the enforcement of their trust lands rules, not FWP. Asking a fish and game warden to deal with violations of trust lands rules would be like asking them to write a ticket for drunken driving - it ain't gonna happen because they don't have the authority. And if you want FWP wardens to have that authority, then I suggest you contact your elected state representative and senator, and get them to change state law.
Good luck dealing with these trust lands issues. IMO, the more folks that file written complaints with DNRC, and that write letters to their elected officials, the sooner some of the problems will be dealt with!
