Conservation Groups Sue to Legalize Corner Crossing in Montana

On Thursday, May 14, two conservation groups announced a lawsuit with significant interest to hunters and anglers in the Treasure State. Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) and Public Land & Water Access Association (PLWA) are suing Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) to “cement the legality of corner crossing in Montana, and ensure access for all Americans to approximately 871,000 acres of public lands in Montana.”

The move comes just over a year after theTenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruledthat corner crossing—walking from the corner of one parcel to the corner of another without setting foot on private property—on federal land does not violate federal law. The ruling results from an attempt to prosecute a group of Wyoming hunters who corner-crossed to reach hunting grounds. It was a major win for outdoorsmen in the West, where some 8.3 million acres of public land is “corner locked,"according to an OnX report. However, because of the limits of legal jurisdiction, the ruling only legalized corner crossing in six states: Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming.

Shortly following the ruling, public land access advocates pushed nearby Montana to follow suit. However, the state’s officials resisted, and Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras has repeatedly said that corner crossing is not lawful. Just this past week, shegave a presentationarguing that “the law is clear that it’s a trespass,” according to state statutes.

While there has been a lot of movement on the issue in recent years, the saga over the legality of corner crossing is not new. “For decades, FWP wardens have been explicitly instructed not to issue citations for individuals who access public lands in this manner,” explains BHA in a press release provided to MeatEater. “Despite this long-standing precedent, FWP recently issued unilateral administrative guidance declaring corner crossing unlawful, and in a major reversal from previous guidance, has instructed its wardens to issue citations for criminal trespass or hunting without landowner permission to anyone who accesses public land this way. BHA and PLWA contend that is an overreach of administrative authority, and the lawsuit challenges it directly.”

“It doesn’t matter what side of the barbed wire, or political aisle you stand on, we are all public landowners with a vested interest in our public lands," said Ryan Callaghan, BHA President and CEO. “Corner crossing while respecting private property is a practical ‘middle ground’ that the vast majority of Montanans support. Shutting the public out of 871,000 acres of public lands is not.”

The lawsuit was filed in Lewis and Clark County District Court and seeks to “secure a durable resolution” on the issue. “There is a commonsense path that respects private property while ensuring public lands aren’t effectively blocked,” said PLWA Executive Director Alex Leone. “We’ve worked in good faith to find that solution and remain ready to do so.”

MeatEater has long supported efforts to ensure the legality of corner crossing, formerly raising over $66,000 for the Wyoming BHA Corner Crossing Defense Fund. “As a sitting member of the North American Board of Directors for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, I’ve gotten to see firsthand the due diligence and extreme effort put in by the BHA staff to solve for the corner-crossing challenge across the West and here in Montana,” said MeatEater Director of Conservation Mark Keynon. “This new effort represents just the latest example of BHA being willing to go out on a limb and do the hard work necessary to ensure a better future for public lands and access to them for hunters and anglers. I’m eager to see the fruits of the labor.”

Note: The feature image does not depict a corner crossing. In order to legally corner cross, hunters need to find a physical monument at the corner and only cross at that point.

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