Airspace Trespassing in Wyoming

MaverickNH

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Yes - checkerboard describes it well, but the checkers are trapped on their square.

ELK MOUNTAIN, Wyo.—As the name suggests, there are hundreds of elk on Elk Mountain, an 11,000-foot peak in southern Wyoming. The problem for hunters: You can’t get there from here.

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Border crossing
The sprawling mountain is surrounded by private ranchland. While the prime hunting ground is checkerboarded with federal and state property, access is limited by an age-old Western doctrine. Ranchers consider it unneighborly for outsiders to hopscotch through their land by crossing over public sections that meet only at a corner.

Last year, four hunters from Missouri thought they had devised a solution to the access problem. Using a special stepladder, they climbed between two parcels owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management, taking care not to set foot on the private property on either side.

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“ Iron Bar has claimed in a nonpublic document that the Missourians caused between $3.1 million and $7.75 million in damage to the ranch, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Damn!
 
Yeah. 7.75M because of one stepladder.

I was hoping they would be found guilty. This would have made it up to a level where "public" land would be deemed usable by. . . . "the public" and tell guys like this landowner to go pound sand.

It's not about 7.75M of damage. It's about him having full access to public land all for himself. F that guy.

When the government set out to sell that land, they didn't do it checkerboard to ensure that landowners got full control of double or triple their land b/c of crossing issues.

He said he has opened a portion of his ranch to public hunting and tried to solve the checkerboard problem by offering to swap private and public parcels, to no avail.

This seems like the best idea. Drop the suit. Swap lands and defer. Because I think this guy is going to lose in the long run.
 
1) the rancher is a Richard. 2) His lawyer is an idiot. No, you don’t own the airspace above your property. Federal law is quite clear that no one owns airspace and that airspace use is regulated by the FAA.
 
It's not about 7.75M of damage. It's about him having full access to public land all for himself. F that guy.

Exactly,

There have been a few times here that I have seen public land posted in an effort to create a private hunting preserve on public land. There was also an issue 7-8 years ago IIRC where locals put up a gate on an public land access road and the state didn’t force them to take it down.
 
Un-neighborly BS! They're not neighbors. I can see the unwritten rule of not crossing at a corner to apply with moving livestock, even vehicles. Not people on foot.
 
“ Iron Bar has claimed in a nonpublic document that the Missourians caused between $3.1 million and $7.75 million in damage to the ranch, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Damn!
Damned Missourians! LOL. Must've been from the cities.
 
you may have air rights over your property to build, but anything starting at the tops of the blades of grass to the edge of space is owned by the Federal Government
 
you may have air rights over your property to build, but anything starting at the tops of the blades of grass to the edge of space is owned by the Federal Government
It shouldn't be, but the feds have asserted that ownership.

That's how they claim control over all R/C drones, while granting royal dispensation for *some* drones, just out of kindness.
 
 
Great read. I wonder how they get anything they shot out over that ladder without trespassing?
 
That's great news. Not shocking, but great news. Some douchebag trying to tie up all the public land as private is BS. Sorry, dude. They can cross. Now just make them a nice path and be done with it.

Sheesh. People TRYING to follow the law and you get your panties in a twist and sue them for $9M.
 
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