Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game WY Corner crossing case

Against my better judgement...I'll clarify a bunch of the pure BS that is being posted on this thread in regard to the corner crossing issues.

1. The 4 guys that corner crossed used a ladder to cross the corner this year. They crossed the corner last year as well, informed both the GF warden and County Sheriff of their intentions they never received a citation last year. They again informed the warden and sheriff this year of their intent to cross again, which they did. The reason for the ladder is that the EM Ranch put a chain between the t-posts at they corner, which was done to prevent public access at the corner. Further, its an illegal posting of public land as the land behind that sign is public, no debate about that.

2. They were harassed by the Elk Mountain Ranch staff/employees while hunting including being followed while hunting (Elk Mountain guys driving cross country on BLM and State ground). They were also stopped on the county road multiple times by Elk Mountain employees.

3. They did kill elk and deer and were told they could not pack the last half of one elk off that public ground where they crossed the corner. The warden retrieved the last half for them.

4. The EM ranch called the County Attorney 15 times the day the deputy sheriff issued the citations for criminal trespass.

They were not given a ticket under title 23 as there was NO INTENT to hunt private via stepping from one piece of public land to another piece of public land. That is consistent with the GF Department policy of being instructed to NOT cite hunters for corner crossing. The AG under Governor Freudenthal, Patrick Crank wrote a legal opinion regarding title 23 specific to corner crossing (that corner crossing was NOT a Game and Fish violation of title 23). Further, a memo was sent out by then GF Director Terry Cleveland stating that corner crossing would not be enforced by the GF under title 23 statute.

So, that leaves the corner crossing issue to the Sheriff's office and County Attorneys IF, and that's a big if they want to enforce it under title 6 criminal trespass or title 10 civil trespass. Civil trespass is not going to be written as the landowner has to prove "damages" to his property via the trespass. Since stepping from one piece of public to another piece of public, in NO WAY damages the adjoining landowner the result of a court case would be a claim of ZERO in punitive damage. Only real option is to cite for title 6 trespass. There has been NO cases of anyone corner crossing in Wyoming ever being cited for corner crossing (guys like to argue that there has been, but in the exhaustive searches myself and many others, including attorneys have done, its simply not true). All the cases we've looked at definitely involved trespass, not corner crossing (hunters short cutting the corners, etc.) I'm in full support of citations for trespassing, both title 23 and 6, property rights are important to me and most everyone I know.

But, that's not to be confused with simply placing your foot from one piece of public to another piece of public land...that does not constitute trespass as defined in title 6 statute. There is NO mention of air space, only that a person remains on "land or residence" so the age old argument of landowners owning air space, in reference to title 6 appears to be, best case, on shaky ground.

Since there is no clear and specific law on corner crossing being a violation of either statute (6 or 10) a group of sportsmen along with WYBHA made the decision to support the hunters who crossed the corner. All 4 have retained council and all 4 attorneys seem confident in a favorable outcome defending their clients.

Public access and our right to legally access that public land is no less of a property right, than those of any private landowner and why this needs to be fought in court.

Another part of the strategy we used, to show that there is nothing but good will toward landowner/sportsmen relationships, any money left over from the gofundme account will be used to fund our GF Department AccessYes program. A program that WYBHA has financially supported every year since becoming a chapter, to the tune of thousands per year. A program that has improved and maintained landowner/sportsmen relationships for a couple decades. No question that cooperation and collaboration is the best avenue to increase access to private lands and landlocked public. However, Sportsmen in Wyoming will not be bullied by landowners that show no regard for our ability to access our public lands either. I'm aware of 3 active cases of landowners harassing hunters in Wyoming this fall, all of whom did nothing wrong and legally accessed public lands. That needs to stop, and I'll do everything I can to see that it does.

We will also provide a detailed accounting of all expenditures from the gofundme account as this is sportsmen that are funding the defense of the 4 hunters. There will be no money going to WYBHA, our entire board is volunteer and nobody is compensated on our board.

Flame away....