Ranchers push 'corner jumping' bill

[TransitJohn]

By JEFF GEARINO
Southwest Wyoming bureau Sunday, December 05, 2004

GREEN RIVER -- Lawmakers jumped right over a proposed bill that would ban "corner jumping" in Wyoming.

Without a vote, a joint interim legislative committee last week decided not to pursue an agriculture industry-sponsored draft bill that would restore the Wyoming Game and Fish Department authority's to cite hunters for the practice, also known as "corner cutting."

Corner jumping describes the practice of stepping over the corner created where four sections of land meet in order to reach a cater-corner parcel of public land.

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/12/05/news/wyoming/c999edf28d4d74c087256f600081021a.txt

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. I don't know any farmers that have a problem with this....

as long as someone isn't shooting on their land. Well, that was that one old guy who'd yell at us kids to "git off my land fer I set out my dogs on ye" Course he was like 95 years old, and his son had taken his gun away! LOL!!

"Magagna said many ranchers and landowners have concerns with the practice of corner jumping. He said the draft bill would bring into line both department regulations and state law.



He said as the current law stands, a landowner's only recourse when corner jumping occurs is to call county sheriff deputies and pursue criminal trespassing charges. Magagna said that is a much more cumbersome process. He said it sometimes takes deputies as long as six or seven hours to respond to complaints."

The local cops just love getting those calls!

[havocmom]

2. Some ranchers have a problem farmers don't all have: gates & cattle.

And in Wyoming, there are probably more cattle moving around than crop fields just sitting still. Hunters trespassing often do not leave gates as they found them. They also will go traversing a pasture that may be muddy from rain, tearing it up with their trucks. There are times when fences get torn up. Often they don't wait til they get on the public lands to start shootin, figuring there's nobody around for miles, so what's the difference. Sometimes they seem to have trouble telling the difference between a deer and a cow, ewe, dog or 12 year old boy in a field fixing a tractor.

As more and more hunters/outfitters seem to think their activities trump all other land uses, more and more ranchers will deny access. If hunters/outfitters behave, ranchers are generally happy to have them cull the deer and antelope competing for forage in a rather difficult land. When ranchers start locking hunters out, they probably have had some expensive past experiences.

And calling law enforcement is a major wait, you are right. In my county, we have 3, count 'em THREE officers to cover a large county 24/7. Sometimes, by the time an officer get to a place, it is because a frustrated and too frequently trespassed rancher is taking matters into his own hand and a 'shootin war' is about to occur. They REALLY hate those calls!

The West is not some large amusement park. People live here. Too many hunters forget that fact and do not behave like good guests when they are on private property getting to public lands.