Respect the private land owners, it can be helpful to you if you do. The western states have many conflicts with private vs public lands and the public will wander on and sometimes injure private lands.
There isn't as much of an excuse anymore with available mapping and smartphones to say you are lost.?ÿ
One local recreation area borders a client's property, I was there to do some sectional retracement and never have I found gates as difficult to open. If it wasn't for my winch I couldn't have opened them. The rancher was impressed that I got through, back and was able to put it back up, he takes a fence ratchet to open them. All to try and reduce the public from spreading out into the pasture lands. Frankly the public can be pigs as evidenced by the garbage, broken bottles and even an old couch set up on a hill just north of his fence on the public land.?ÿ
I totally agree.?ÿ I live near a public trail, and it always amazes me that these people who go to the woods to enjoy nature also leave their beer cans, old tarps, and other crap along the trails and in the parking areas.?ÿ I clean it up every so often because it offends me, but I'll never understand their mentality.
Pennsylvania has tons of State Game Lands, paid for out of hunting license revenues. Pennsylvania also has numerous State and some National forests. Pennsylvanai also has State Parks with areas open and others closed to hunting. The no hunting signs would not necessarity follow property lines but varies by major intended usage. Pennsylvania has an agreement with cooperating landowners. If they own more than 50 acres and open it up to public hunting the landowner is entitled to an antlerless deer tag at no charge, plus they get a free subscription to Pennsylvania Game News magazine.
In the past you had to post the land with no trespassing/no hunting signs at regular intervals. This year it is no longer necessary to post signs, a purple paint mark means "no hunting/no trespassing". Saw same over the weekend up in McKean County. Whether or not it is in the right of way it is your tree. To move back to a probable property line would defeat the purpose of visibility. The right to hunt follows deeds to the Penns from Native People's, who were less concerned with owning the land versus the right to use it for life's purposes. National Forest lands were originally Penn Patent lands so there are differences from Federal Land in western states.
Paul in PA
There is a new trail that runs along the property the office occupies. It is a pasture south of the office so there is a bit less than a 1/4 mile that the trail takes up. They had to install a chain link fence with locked gates to keep people out. Otherwise people were entering and horses and cattle would get on the trail with nothing to block them from two busy highways. You have to wonder what kinda person does something like that.
I could have sworn the sign said 'Trespass On'.
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Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
Forty beer bottles and a pile of rotting fileted fish carcasses.?ÿ Don't get me started on trespassing fishermen.
Friend of mine got a tag number of a trespassing party with a trail-cam.?ÿ He was going to mail all the beer cans, bottles and trash back to the truck's registered owner but his attorney suggested he not.?ÿ He had the attorney send a cease-and-desist letter instead along with a photo of all the trash.?ÿ
The photo "inadvertently" showed my buddy from the waist down...along with his "modern sporting rifle" dangling into the pic.?ÿ I thought that was a nice thinly-veiled visual punctuation mark.
And yes the property was posted "No Fishing".?ÿ
Trespass laws and customs vary widely by State. What is acceptable in one place can lead to a felony conviction elsewhere. Know the law and treat owners with respect and you will usually be ok.
A long while back, I bought 15 acres that were initially planned to be phase 2 of a subdivision development.?ÿ It is about half woods/half open and right next to a fully developed subdivision (i.e. houses with families living in them on every lot).?ÿ Even with people that close, I have still pulled a couple of stands down during what Kentucky refers to as "modern gun" season.?ÿ I might could see hunting on that small of a tract with dense residential on one side if it was bow season, but not gun season.
Never heard a peep from anyone about wanting their deer stand back.
England has a fantastic system of public walkway access through private and state land. One could walk forever (or from Pub to Pub).
One odd thing about the Texas trespass laws is this line. If you trespass in someones garden, it's a violation with or without posted signs or other "Notice"
"(E)??the visible presence on the property of a crop grown for human consumption that is under cultivation, in the process of being harvested, or marketable if harvested at the time of entry."
One odd thing about the Texas trespass laws is this line. If you trespass in someones garden, it's a violation with or without posted signs or other "Notice"
"(E)??the visible presence on the property of a crop grown for human consumption that is under cultivation, in the process of being harvested, or marketable if harvested at the time of entry."
No doubt written for those intending on purloining ripe melons.?ÿ Cow-tipping is probably OK...?ÿ 😉
Most of the vacant land in the Country is public.
Of course posting isn't "required" anywhere, but if you want to be able to charge someone with trespassing, a fence, or a sign is almost always required.?ÿ
Again, in many areas you would be assuming wrong, if you assumed you couldn't legally hunt on unposted unfenced land.?ÿ
I think if you asked the people putting up the signs they would tell you the same thing. Otherwise why bother...
As an example see Texas' trespassing statute. https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/penal-code/penal-sect-30-05.html). It is not trespassing unless there is a fence, a sign, purple paint, or a written, or verbal warning.?ÿ
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It depends what state you are in, but in many it is the responsibility of the land owner to post if they don't want hunters, not the hunter to know where they are.
In Arizona for example, hunters are explicitly allowed to enter private land to hunt unless it is posted.
My Dad's Father died when he was 15. Dad dropped out of school to do the farming. Two of his older brothers got out of WWII a year or so later and one of them helped after that.
One year they had a field of watermelons so they hid a shotgun out in the field and then went to town. They found a couple of young ladies that wanted to go stealing watermelons. One of them kept the girls occupied looking for the best melon while the other snuck off to the shotgun and fired off a shot. Everybody started screaming and hollering running for the car. They did manage to get away without anyone getting hit.
The bizarre thing is what these out of state hunters do when they actually purchase some land in our area.?ÿ The first thing they do is install cameras everywhere that can be turned on and off remotely so they can identify anyone who DARES to trespass on THEIR land for any reason.?ÿ Dozens to hundreds of such cameras depending on the size of the holdings.?ÿ They claim they are there so they can keep track of where the wildlife congregates and the various preferred trails.?ÿ Yet, let someone be seen on one of their cameras and the sheriff's office receives a very indignant call at the moment they discover they have been violated. "Yeah, sheriff, it was someone in camo."
My favorite sign:
NO TRESPASSING?ÿ
VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED?ÿ
Good good, no prosecution going on here!
Isn't that "Survivors will be persecuted"?
I have an uncanny sixth-sense that allows me to find nearly every trail-cam in the county.?ÿ All I have to do is duck behind a cedar brake to relieve myself.?ÿ As soon as I am actively into my task I can usually look up and spot three or four.?ÿ It seems to be a natural talent.
God bless the first cam owner that records me taking a healthy squat.
About 10 years ago I was involved in defeating vandalism and graffiti on the walls and carpark area of a set of suburban shops. I set up a number of cameras over the area, including a bazooka that reached in HD the far corner of the carpark and most of the carpark area. Some were hidden, some not. Anyway, at about midnight one Friday night a group of about half a dozen teenagers walked up, sprayed the wall, then carried on past our area. Then about 30 seconds later one of the females peeled back on her own, went to the middle of the wall area, squatted and pinched off a set of substantial loaves - obviously she baked only once a week, on a Friday. Now this was well pre-covid days, but being a carpark, there was obviously an historic shortage of TP, and what happened next, I can't repeat.
Anyway, I thought about that long and hard for quite some time, wondering whether to take it to the Police and/or post online but in the end decided that this was someone's daughter and they'd all be likely to be deeply horrified and embarrassed, so I left it.
Trespassers WILL BE violated.
Cue Ned Beatty's most famous movie scene.