Wildabeest
Well-known member
One of my parcels in MT abuts a section of state land that has cattle grazing on it. Last year I noticed where the cattle had been on my property, and was able to locate a breech in the barbed wire fence that surrounds the public section (the rancher’s fence, not mine) and fixed it. I thought maybe I was doing him a favor so he didn’t have to chase his cattle all over Park County.
This section of state land happens to be 100% landlocked by private, so I’ve always been curious as to how the rancher accesses the state land, and thought that maybe he owned a parcel that provided access.
When I was up there a few weeks ago, I noticed a gate* had been put in where the previous breech was. Note that this is on the border of my property. I also noticed vehicle tracks across my property to get to said gate, and then onto the state land. I can only assume the rancher installed the gate and was the one who was crossing my property in their vehicle.
I don’t have a real issue with any of this, other than the obvious double standard. I’m not sure if somehow that rancher has the right to drive across my property or not, but if he asked I would undoubtedly grant him permission. In less than 15 minutes he could look my name up on the MT cadastral, Google that and get my contact info.
Anyway, I just thought that was interesting in the context of this discussion. The whole thing was more interesting to me than upsetting. But if he starts using my property for hunting access to that state land, then we’ll have a problem!
*not a fixed gate, but rather just two posts in the barbed wire fence put next to each other and wired together such that the wire can be easily removed and that section of fence moved to the side to allow passage.