For millionaire and four hunters, a wild Western lawsuit over public land
wapo.st
The ruling on an invisible corner in Elk Mountain, Wyo., could help determine how much private property rights thwart the public’s ability to access its land.

Four Missouri elk hunters used [a stepladder] to climb over an invisible corner from one parcel of Bureau of Land Management terrain to another. They never touched a toe on two adjacent swaths of private property marked by “No Trespassing” signs.

But to the owner of that property, a North Carolina multimillionaire whose portfolio includes 22,000 acres of this game-rich mountain, the hunters’ aerial corner-cross was trespassing all the same. Whether he is correct — and the extent to which private property rights can thwart the public’s ability to access its land on thousands of similar corners — is now being weighed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver.

  • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    5 months ago

    So for the record this is actually a HUGE problem in the US. Land is sold in grids and what large land owners are doing is just buying the land in a checker pattern; they can then refuse public access to the half of that land they don’t even own by accusing people of tresspassing for crossing the corners. The result is huge land owners getting exclusive use of public land for free, and yes they do actually use that whole 50% of the land they haven’t even paid for.

    • ryathal
      71·
      5 months ago

      A full on right to roam is probably a bit extreme, but I could see a minimal right of way being required around public lands.

      • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13·
        5 months ago

        It works fine in Scotland, buffalo buffalo buffalo it just has exceptions for, well its a bit undefined but it basically means peoples gardens, industrial estates, fields with delicate crops. I think the best way to describe it is you can go anywhere that hasn’t been actively and greatly transformed for private use.

      • BakedGoods
        1·
        5 months ago

        Not extreme at all. What’s extreme is the “mUh pRuPuRtY” of Americans. I could probably go a year without hearing the word property used in my native tongue but when listening to Americans, it’s every other word out of their mouths.

        • ryathal
          1·
          5 months ago

          Right to roam would require major liability reform and a massive reduction in lawyers in the US. Overzealous lawyers have ruined a lot of things in the US.