Lawmakers advance bill supporting legality of corner crossing

Yahoo

a day ago

CHEYENNE – The ongoing conversations concerning corner crossing in Wyoming continued Tuesday as a state legislative committee narrowly voted to continue pursuing a bill to decriminalize it.
The corners in question refer to the intersection of publicly and privately owned lands, and whether members of the public, often hunters, fishers and hikers, are allowed to cross diagonally between public lands at their intersection with private property.
Discussions around this topic heated up in 2021 when a group of four Missouri hunters were sued by a ranch owner in Carbon County for corner crossing between public lands that intersected with his property. He alleged more than $7 million in damages and appealed the initial court decision.
Some members of the Wyoming Legislature's Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee wanted to wait until a decision comes from the U.S. Supreme Court in reconsideration of the lower federal court's ruling that found their actions to not be trespassing. The nation's high court hasn't announced whether it will hear this appeal, however.
Corner crossing graphic
The appeals court used this graphic to depict corner crossing.
Other committee members, however, thought it would be prudent to at least continue advancing the bill draft for further consideration to be proactive in identifying a solution to the problem.
'This is exactly why we have interims. This is why this committee exists. This is our job. We're taking up an issue that is going to be here for quite some time to come,' said Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper.
But Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, he said he felt there are too many unresolved details that could cause issues further down the line, including additional litigation.
He said the current bill draft doesn't properly address things like what is legally considered a cornerstone that marks the intersection of properties, and the use of the word 'authorizes' in the draft, asking whether that meant individuals are authorized by law or must seek authorization to cross corners from a separate entity.
Ryan Semerad, the attorney representing the Missouri hunters, said the primary benefit of this bill is not that it answers every single question, but that it transfers violations from criminal to civil court.
'I don't think there is a person who believes that someone should be taken off the public lands in handcuffs because they stepped on the wrong blade of grass,' he said.
He added that current enforcement of this issue further burdens law enforcement and the judicial system.
'I think this bill is appropriate, because it takes the conversation into the appropriate arena and outside of that (criminal) arena, where the stakes are much higher, where if a landowner thinks corner crossing is a crime, they might bring force to bear, they might respond in a much more aggressive fashion,' he said.
Hicks asked how long it could take for the judicial appeal process to play out for the existing case.
Semerad said the Supreme Court could receive the case as early as Sept. 17 and the file could be distributed to justices on Oct. 1.
After that, he said the court could decide in the coming weeks whether to hear the appeal. If they decide to hear the case, Semerad estimated a decision could come by next June.
Representatives from associations representing private property owners opposed consideration of the bill, calling it both incomplete and unnecessary to consider before a decision from the Supreme Court.
Brett Moline, policy advocacy director for the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, said his main problem with the bill is that it still allows for property damage.
As not all intersections have visible cornerstones, and some GPS systems may be inaccurate, even by a few meters, this could cause someone to walk through private property, even unintentionally.
Though Semerad said it is just a matter of someone stepping on the wrong blade of grass, Moline argued this could cause serious damage if hundreds of hunters are doing this, potentially forming a trail through someone's private property.
Wyoming Stock Growers Association Executive Vice President Jim Magagna echoed these concerns, urging lawmakers to be advocates of private property rights and hash out decisions once a final judicial ruling comes.
Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, said her reasoning for support of this draft legislation is to represent the people of Wyoming.
'I don't know if anybody was awake in June or July, but the amount of people that showed up (in support) for public lands was astronomical,' she said, referencing an event she hosted on the steps of the Wyoming Capitol where around 500 residents showed up to protest potential loss of public lands.
'Committee, I'm going to ask you not to get bogged down in the details. Don't get sold on what needs to be a perfect bill. The goal here today is to represent Wyoming. And if there's one thing that is broadly supported here, it's that I want to go and step foot on my public land.'
With a 7-6 vote in favor, the committee will continue the discussion of the bill draft at its next meeting in Casper in November. No formal amendments were proposed during Tuesday's meeting, but several were discussed that may intend to clear up some of the details that several members thought were left unclear.
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