Keeping Trespassers out....is it possible?

[BuckeyeRifleman]

So they aren’t hunting your property, just have to walk through your property to get to public land they can’t otherwise get to, and aren’t doing any harm to your property in the process?

Not saying what they are doing is legal, but I’m not sure I’d be all worked up about it either. I say that as a landowner.

I have neighbors pass through my property from time to time. Usually it’s to get a lost dog or whatever. It really doesn’t bother me.

Actively hunting, getting firewood, or otherwise doing harm to my property? Whole different ball game.

Also would help to know the layout of the land. If they were parking in my drive and walking right by my house I would be pissed. Cutting off a corner for a few hundred feet? I wouldn’t sweat it. But that’s just me and my own philosophy on this sort of thing.

 

[wind gypsy]

Totally understand the OPs desire to keep folks off his land and I see nothing wrong with wanting to reap the benefits of the land he has paid for.

There are a lot of issues across the West with land changing hands and the new owners trying to change or remove traditional access. In those issues I lean toward support of public access the majority of the time. The waters get murky. I sure as hell don’t support people trying to create prescriptive easements via illegal trespass. In areas that have had prescriptive easements for decades I sure don’t support a new landowner intimidating legal users in efforts to remove legal access.
In the OPs case if there is not a documented USFS trail on his land my sympathies lie with him and not those crossing his land.

 

[204guy]

Other Thread

The OP has multiple threads on his issue's. The other thread gives some more context.
If I remember correctly the trail crosses his property by 1' and he's never had his property survied.

 

[BuckeyeRifleman]

Other Thread

The OP has multiple threads on his issue's. The other thread gives some more context.
If I remember correctly the trail crosses his property by 1' and he's never had his property survied.

Lol!

I had a sneaking suspicion there was more to the OPs story than what met the eye. As much as I hate trespassers, I hate douche bag landowners even more.

I’ve got friend in Montana that was forced to tear down the house he built by hand because his survey markers were wrong and he was literally a foot past his property line when he built it. The neighbor was a retired doctor from California whose home was like a half mile away and owned hundreds of acres.

Instead of just selling the 1x1ft piece of land the douche bag California transplant made him tear down his ******* home. Seems that California transplant and the OP are cut from the same cloth.

 

[Wrenchmonkey]

My family owns substantial property, and I've found that the best way to keep an area 'policed' is to have somebody else leasing hunting/access rights. If the property you've got is able to support more hunters than just yourself, finding somebody else who's wanting to hunt it and willing to pay for the privilege, those guys will do more to keep it protected than you, any law enforcement, or anybody else. You find the right guys who are serious about it, and charge enough money to make sure they want to protect their interest in it, and they'll do a better job of keeping it policed than hiring an armed security service.

That said, if all they're doing is crossing over to access land elsewhere, and they're not cutting fences, pushing game, taking game on the property, leaving trash, etc, I have no problem letting somebody cross over peaceably.

If somebody asks permission, they'll pretty much get it. If I catch somebody who doesn't have permission, but they don't cause any problems, I'll let them on their way and tell them either not to come back, or to at least ask next time.

If they're dicks, then prosecute, and make sure they never wanna come back no matter what (and tell their friends).

That's just me though, I'm not telling you what to do with your own place.

Every scenario is different. And unfortunately, the there's no such thing as the 'cure all' you're looking for.

You're on the right track with your current efforts like the cameras.

If you're not using them already, there are cellular trail cameras that will send you photos 'on the fly' so you can monitor it and go confront them immediately when you get an alert of movement, instead of just trying to figure out after the fact who it was and be reactive that way.

 

[Mountaingates]

Honest will be honest and yet you will always have others that will push the line and or trespass. Not much a person can do but wait and watch.

 

[stevezim2012]

Sad what this worlds come to

 

[Poser]

Sad what this worlds come to

When exactly was the time that it was any better?

 

[stevezim2012]

When exactly was the time that it was any better?

I feel like growing up as a kid there was much more respect for adults in general as well as landowners. These days it seems that has been lost along the way. Many parents seem to try and be there kids friend instead of parent and respect for things/property etc isn't what it used to be.

I am sure it wasn't perfect back then and these problems still existed, but I dont feel as much. That's just my opinion.

Not the greatest analogy but how often do you see people hold the door for someone leaving/entering an establishment? Not often. That was common practice when I was younger and if i didn't i got a smack upside the head by for being rude from my father.

But I was also a kid so maybe things were worse you just didnt hear about them as much like you do today due to social media/smart phones/internet.

 

[Poser]

I feel like growing up as a kid there was much more respect for adults in general as well as landowners. These days it seems that has been lost along the way. Many parents seem to try and be there kids friend instead of parent and respect for things/property etc isn't what it used to be.

I am sure it wasn't perfect back then and these problems still existed, but I dont feel as much. That's just my opinion.

Not the greatest analogy but how often do you see people hold the door for someone leaving/entering an establishment? Not often. That was common practice when I was younger and if i didn't i got a smack upside the head by for being rude from my father.

But I was also a kid so maybe things were worse you just didnt hear about them as much like you do today due to social media/smart phones/internet.

My memory as a kid was that you could freely hunt anyone’s ll and without permission unless they told specifically you otherwise. Same went for riding bikes, building forts and generally just “playing in the woods.” I would actually guess that trespassing used to be more common, just that people didn’t care about it as much since hunting wasn’t as competitive, properties in the East tended to be larger and there wasn’t much of a concern about liability. I know I didn’t spend any time as a kid thinking about “tresspassing” and I don’t have any real recollection of getting run off a property either.

 

[Kilboars]

Prosecute. Usually it’s only a few people that have been doing it for years. Becoming a felon losing their license and spending some time in jail and court gets the word out that you’re not screwing around.


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[stevezim2012]

Amen

Prosecute. Usually it’s only a few people that have been doing it for years. Becoming a felon losing their license and spending some time in jail and court gets the word out that you’re not screwing around.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Amen to that!!!

 

[rob86jeep]

I'm pretty sure the OP stopped responding to this thread... Not sure if he got busy, or realized that his train of thought didn't jive with the rest of Rokslide... Either way, probably time to end the thread.

 

[Kilboars]

We caught a poacher this year and he bitched out the owner of the property for ruining his hunt. Can't make this stuff up. They really don't care about laws.