Earlier this month, legislators in Wyoming brought forth a bill designed to protect hunter access to more than two million acres of corner-locked public land in the Cowboy State. Titled “Access to public land-corner crossing,” HB99 was authored by Rep. Karlee Provenza and introduced in Wyoming’s House of Representatives on Jan. 2. But members of the Wyoming Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA)—who fought for recent corner crossing wins in the Wyoming court system—say the legislation needs critical amendments before they can fully support it.
In many parts of the American West, public lands aren't neatly set aside in large contiguous blocks. Instead, these "corner-locked" parcels are imbedded in a patchwork of private properties that can make public access difficult and ambiguous. According to a recent report from digital mapping company OnX, this type of checker-boarded land ownership pattern restricts access to some 8.3 million acres of public land across 11 western states.
Wyoming has been at the center of the long-running fight to protect hunter access to corner-locked public land since at least 2021. In October of that year, a large landowner charged four hunters from Missouri with criminal trespass after they used a ladder to cross between caddy-corner parcels of public property while deer and elk hunting in the southeast Wyoming.
The landowner, Fred Eshelman of North Carolina, said the hunters violated the private airspace above his Wyoming ranch and devalued his property by millions of dollars when they crossed from one public corner to another in pursuit of big game. Ultimately, judges found the hunters innocent of all charges brought by Eshelman in both civil and criminal court.
According to recent reporting from WyoFile, HB99 "would clarify that corner crossing is not trespassing and resolve long-simmering access questions to 2.4 million acres of public land in Wyoming." And it would do so by amending existing Wyoming statues that relate to 'criminal trespass' and 'hunting without permission.' “It’s important we codify that the people of Wyoming have the right to access their public lands,” the bill's author, Rep. Provenza, told the outlet.
The Wyoming Chapter of BHA gave critical legal support to the four Missouri hunters as they battled Eshelman's charges in the court system. In a statement provided to Field & Stream, Wyoming BHA called Provenza's bill an attempt to clarify legal ambiguities around corner crossing but stopped short of fully endorsing the measure. "While we appreciate the intent of House Bill 99," the statement reads, "we encourage lawmakers to address issues in its current draft to ensure it protects public access without creating unintended consequences."
In an interview with F&S, BHA Western Policy and Conservation Manager Devin O'Dea said Provenza is receptive to working with BHA on amending her bill. "Some of the language is too broad," O'Dea says. "As it's written, it could open the door to trespass on private land, and that’s not what we want to see come out of this bill. We want to maintain the work we’ve done to ensure respect for private property while still facilitating this mechanism to allow people to cross at corners."
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Issues aside, O'Dea says BHA and its Wyoming members are optimistic about the impact that BH99 could have on the corner crossing debate—should BHA's preferred amendments be implemented. "The element in this bill that I think we’re enthusiastic about is the opportunity to clarify criminal trespass laws to prevent inappropriate prosecutions of law-abiding hunters who corner cross legally," he says. "If we get it right, it could be another building block in the broader defense of the legality of corner crossing. But we don’t want to have any element of this bill work against the broad support that’s been built for corner crossing so far."
