State senators Mike McLane (R-Powell Butte) and Anthony Broadman (D-Bend), working with the Oregon Hunters Association, introduced legislation last month to protect Oregonians’ access to public lands through “corner crossing.”
But landowners are battling the bill, saying that it conflicts with “long-standing principles of real property law.”
Corner crossing, or stepping from public land to public land where adjoining corners of public and private lands meet, has been a legal uncertainty in Oregon law. The senators’ legislation provides much-needed clarity to protect public land users from allegations of trespass, as well as landowners from allegations of negligence, according to OHA.
“Legal clarity improves access to public lands and protects landowners,” McLane said. “Oregonians deserve common sense from Salem on how and when we can access public resources. Senate Bill 1545 makes Oregonians’ access to our lands clearer.”
Gary Lewis of the Oregon Hunters Association said hunters have been “conditioned” to avoid crossing private property because of trespassing concerns.
“It has been drilled into us in hunter education classes,” Lewis said. “State police and sheriff’s deputies tend to side with the landowner, so the public land user stays away from these situations. But it is not fair and it is not just to bar the public from public land.”
Balancing the public’s right to access public land with necessary protections for private landowners, the legislation provides protection against negligence lawsuits. This has long been a troublesome issue for Oregonians who utilize public lands, where corner crossings are often necessary. This critical legislation will provide more certainty for all parties going forward.
“Our public lands are part of our heritage and who we are as Oregonians,” Broadman said. “Senate Bill 1545 will help preserve access for hunters exercising our rights to access federal lands across our state. We also owe it to the tribes, ranchers, farmers, and timber owners to ensure corner crossing doesn’t interfere with working Oregon lands and their stewardship of our state. Our proposal strikes that balance.”
Lewis said a Colorado corner crossing case has been working its way through the courts in that state.
“A landowner and a hunter were willing to fight it all the way to the supreme court and now public land users are starting to look at maps again and find those places they have been kept out of,” he said.
Matt Smith, president of Bend-based William Smith Properties, Inc. and GI Ranch Corp., which manage more than 200,000 deeded acres and approximately 250,000 acres of leased public land for cattle operations in central and eastern Oregon, said that he believes the issue is still up in the air in the courts.
“SB 1545 appears to be motivated by a recent 10th Circuit decision addressing corner crossing in a single county in Wyoming,” he said. “That ruling has not been applied across the entire 10th Circuit, and Oregon is not within that circuit. It is far from settled that the 9th Circuit will reach the same conclusion. Oregon does not need to – and should not – act as a test case or juggernaut on this issue.
Smith said corner crossing is “rarely the clean, theoretical scenario often described,” noting that mapping tools generally lack the accuracy necessary to identify a legal corner with certainty.
“As a result, some degree of trespass is inevitable – even for individuals acting in good
faith, “ he said. “For those acting without good faith, the incentive to knowingly cut corners is obvious.
“This legislation places landowners in an untenable position: either actively police their
boundaries at significant cost and conflict, or accept ongoing, unenforceable trespass. The bill’s
claim of providing “clarity” does exactly the opposite. It introduces ambiguity, increases
conflict, and substantially weakens enforceability of private property rights.”
The Oregon bill has garnered support from across the political spectrum, the OHA said, including 10 Republican and Democratic legislators from urban and rural districts alike. This diverse support shows that access to public lands is a bipartisan concern that resonates throughout the state.
“Oregon’s public lands are incredibly important to hunters, hikers, bird watchers, anglers, and all Oregonians seeking to enjoy the state’s natural beauty,” said Amy Patrick, OHA’s policy rep in Salem. “Providing some level of legal certainty ensures public land access when such access is vital to everything we do. OHA thanks Senators McLane and Broadman for spearheading this critical effort.”
The legislation is broadly supported by the conservation, recreation and outdoor communities including Oregon Wild Sheep Foundation, Oregon Association of Shooting Ranges, Oregon Trappers Association, Oregon United Sporting Dogs Association, and, notably, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers who have long advocated that corner crossing is not a crime.
“ I would say that we probably will not find a lot of egregious examples in Linn County, but as we go south of Linn County there are more and more examples of so-called landlocked chunks of BLM (land),” Lewis said.