Posted property issues are not solely related to our hunting activities. Nearly every facet of outdoor recreation has it's bad apples. Fishermen, rock hounds, geo cachers, atv users, photographers, pot hunters, and druggies are all out there, and there are always a few bad ones in the crowd.
Ranchers used to maintain reasonably stocked line shacks (typically on small unfenced deeded parcels) all over the west. Standards were if one truly needed it, one was welcome to use such with expectations of replacement, some form of payment, or maybe just a thank you note. Today, such will be vandalized and any form of useable gear ripped off within a month. The same goes with the 99-year cabin leases on forest lands. Doors will be caved in and the place trashed. Our local scout troop has an inholding cabin within USFS property. Over the years, they've hiked in several times to find squatters have essentially moved in. Not just hermit types, but sometimes entire families. If not the squatters themselves, then a month's worth of garbage left and the expected stack of firewood fully consumed. We once considered acquiring a cabin, but in todays world we'd have to be there 24/7 to keep it secure.
Admittedly, I've cursed a few property owners. One can be traversing thousands of acres of public ground and suddenly be stopped by a locked gate blocking the road after someone fenced their 40 around a spring. One might have to do a 15 mile detour to get around, and you can see the opposing gate about 400 yds down the road. The owner may not show up for years, but I fully understand their anger at finding garbage, a carcass floating in their spring, the facilities burned, or a well pump destroyed or vandalized. I'm one that usually learns the lesson the first time, and I would subsequently go after trespassers big time if the property was mine.
A distant acquaintance ranches along a remote section of Oregon's Deschutes River. His boundary markers and signs are ripped down about as fast as he can put them up by floaters and fishermen. His worst was a couple targets placed immediately in front of a stack of irrigation pipe with about 30 lengths shot up. That gets expensive. I've been on a couple ride-alongs with him, and when he finds a trespasser he is the nastiest meanest SOB on the earth even if she looks like Bo Derek in her 20's. Similarly, we had a local gentleman who has since moved away, but he was famous for getting after trespassrs on his 160 in the forest. He'd step from behind a tree and stick a 45 in their ear, seize their guns if they were packing, and tell them where to find them when leaving. Never once was he bothered by legal issues, and he upset a bunch of people over the years.
It is sad that society has dropped to today's level, but I side with those that hold title and feel it's my responsibility to know where I am. I can't remember which state it relates to, but seems there are some that even prohibit corner hopping in checker board situations. That's one that would really get my goat.
Last edited by 1minute; 02/17/18.
