MONTANA LANDOWNER WINS ROAD ACCESS LAWSUIT

[PrairieHunter]

Montana landowner wins road access lawsuit

Judge rules interim order in favor of landowner over use of Fergus County road

www.gohunt.com

 

[onpoint]

Win some - lose some.
Regardless, PLWA continues to do the foot work. An outfit worthy of the public land hunter's support.
Unfortunately, the average age of the gentlemen active in PLWA is way up there.
Old enough that the "lose some" age bracket will overtake the "win some" (here read - new blood) bracket.
There is hope though - on PLWA's home page there's a "meateater" sponsored T, as well as ol' Tony Schoonen......
Now, maybe if PLWA held meetings at microbreweries and put their logos on flat hats.....

 

[scubohuntr]

So, because the road was "an overgrown two-track", nobody uses it? I suppose some folks might take this as an indictment of the entire "leave no trace" ethos. If the people who use that road had rutted it up and left a lot of damage, it might still be open. But of course, money talks. Now the landowners have a 47,000 acre private playground on our public land. It's good to be king.

 

[RobG]

PLWA is very careful about what they pursue and this just goes to show these lawsuits are not certain. It's bad news that tax records weren't able to prove it was a public road.

Onpoint - they have managed to get a couple youngn's on the board and a couple years ago they held a fundraiser at Map Brewing. There hats are still mighty cool and I get complimented on mine regularly!

 

[onpoint]

Long as the cap don't go flat billed - I'm in..............

 

[antelopedundee]

From the link.

"“The evidence fails to clearly and convincingly demonstrate that the seasonal recreational use of the disputed trail constitutes sufficient adversity to the landowners,” Gilbert wrote. "

They aren't harmed by the access but I'll rule in their favor anyway. Makes no sense to me.

 

[JLS]

The Robbins are the antithesis of the North American Model.

 

[NYyotekiller]

That’s unfortunate that a judge that’s ruled on this made two incorrect statements.

A boundary survey map or an old map showing a named road can in fact prove that a highway is public. There is much more to road ownership than if it can support public use or not. Simply because it’s overgrown and lightly used means absolutely nothing as far as legal ownership goes.

Also, Her statement about the road needing to be “open, notorious and adverse” in order to be public is incorrect also.

 

[Mudranger1]

I find it funny someone complains that only old people form the group but are unwilling to promote something that could potentially solve the problem. Whether it's a flat bill or microbrewery meet and greet. Brilliant!

 

[antelopedundee]

That’s unfortunate that a judge that’s ruled on this made two incorrect statements.

A boundary survey map or an old map showing a named road can in fact prove that a highway is public. There is much more to road ownership than if it can support public use or not. Simply because it’s overgrown and lightly used means absolutely nothing as far as legal ownership goes.

Also, Her statement about the road needing to be “open, notorious and adverse” in order to be public is incorrect also.

If that's true it would seem that one side had rather poor representation.

 

[shoots-straight]

If that's true it would seem that one side had rather poor representation.

If the judge was wrong, the representation is immaterial.

 

[antelopedundee]

If the judge was wrong, the representation is immaterial.

I was assuming that representation should have made those points during the hearing.

 

[shoots-straight]

Win some - lose some.
Regardless, PLWA continues to do the foot work. An outfit worthy of the public land hunter's support.
Unfortunately, the average age of the gentlemen active in PLWA is way up there.
Old enough that the "lose some" age bracket will overtake the "win some" (here read - new blood) bracket.
There is hope though - on PLWA's home page there's a "meateater" sponsored T, as well as ol' Tony Schoonen......
Now, maybe if PLWA held meetings at microbreweries and put their logos on flat hats.....

Bern Lea is leaving as President very soon. He's done a bunch of digging around in cellars, and old closets to keep public lands available to us.

I grew up with Bern's son, (one of my very best friends). I would classify Bern a very good friend also. He told me that there is new blood working PLWA's mission.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Bern Lea is leaving as President very soon. He's done a bunch of digging around in cellars, and old closets to keep public lands available to us.

I grew up with Bern's son, (one of my very best friends). I would classify Bern a very good friend also. He told me that there is new blood working PLWA's mission.

That is good to hear. If the new blood can do ten percent of what Bern Lea has accomplished, it will still be very impressive. Thanks for sharing the positive note.
We all owe hugely to Bern for his enormous contributions to access to public lands and waters.