Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Idaho to fix problem of blocked access to public land?

Sr. was an okay guy. Did a lot of land developmental survey work for him in High Rolls, NM. He was just a businessman. Had to move to NM due to health reasons, for the drier climate.

Never thought much of Jr. I always thought the only interests he looked after was his own.

I hope Idaho paves the way and sets precedent for “sportsman’s rights”. Surrounding public lands with private property as a means of locking out the people from THEIR land is wrong and needs to be fixed. Private landowners that are able to acquire large or small “strips” of land that border public land in order to deny access to it is, in essence, their way of stealing PUBLIC land for their own greedy corporate and/or personal use. Those ass holes have the money to buy politicians and the ability to tie up the state, the feds and individuals with years and years of litigation. ALL PUBLIC LAND should have reasonable areas of access for hunters and outdoorsmen with the number of access points being dictated by the geography and the size of the public land in question. If the landowners that have locked out public lands aren’t willing to come to an agreement then the application of eminent domain is warranted. Private property is a rather unique and sacred principle in the US that allows one to keep people off of the owners property BUT when it’s used (abused) to keep people off of THEIR own property then it’s an egregious abuse of the law or statutes and needs to be remedied. Anyone that bought private land that borders public land, public land that existed as public before the purchase, should be fair game when considering possible locations for easements. It’s like people that buy a house next to an airport and then complain about the noise.

Your freedom ends when it infringes upon my freedom.

Over the years Puma County has purchased several ranches under a program called the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. They typically pass a bond election, purchase the ranch and then lease it back to the owner under their rules.

When the county ranch manager retired, he encouraged me to apply for his position. After a rather lengthy application process I had an interview. One of the questions they asked was do you think the general public should have access to recreate on SDCP properties? My reply was if you pass bonds and use taxpayer money to purchase the property the public should have the ability to use the property for recreational purposes. Didn't get the job!

No person has the right to trespass upon another's property. Prove an existing easement. Or buy a right of way.

Well, let's say there was a sweet little 10 acre pond belonging to the city. And all the neighborhood kids like to swim and fish in it. And then a new freeway goes in and wipes out the only path to said pond. Now the only way for the kids to get to the pond is straight across your front yard and through your wife's flower patch.

Is it really your problem that the only people who can get to the pond now, are the ones who go out your back door?

And what you are describing is such an abnormal situation that it is hardly relevant. 99.99% of these cases are old homestead lands which have encircled areas of BLM, USFS, or state lands, just as has been described multiple times in this thread.

When the private parcel consists of a thousand acres, or ten thousand acres, or a hundred thousand acres, it can hardly be fairly described as "a few feet of land adjacent to public property solely to keep taxpayers from accessing it."

And yet that is precisely what happened here.

Once, in one place in America. And it involved an illegal transfer of public ground, facilitated by a corrupt politician.

Such is not what proposed law in Idaho addresses.

The public owns public land so the public should have access to what they own.

The public owns public land so the public should have access to what they own.

The land to build the freeway was/is taken by eminent domain so should enough to allow access to that pond the kids sawm in

I think we’re getting our wires crossed here. You are talking about a specific law in Idaho. I’m talking about a specific incident in NM. But the larger, more general issue this has morphed into is the right of public access to public lands vs. the right of private property owners to block that access.