Wyoming Corner Crossing Defense Fund

Any chance we could get a link to an article on the decision, or even a link to the decision itself?
There may be very little in that post that is accurate and would give it little consideration if you plan to walk or drive onto private land in Wyoming because that is trespassing. I live in Natrona County, as does the author of the post and in my opinion, knowing this individual, he is merely trying to reek a little havok.
 
There may be very little in that post that is accurate and would give it little consideration if you plan to walk or drive onto private land in Wyoming because that is trespassing. I live in Natrona County, as does the author of the post and in my opinion, knowing this individual, he is merely trying to reek a little havok.
And this is why you ask for sources.
 
The meateater podcast had a couple of the guys on todays podcast. Was a great conversation and story and well worth an hour or so of one’s time

Agreed. They covered two stories that had really captured my interest over the past year. The MO cabin arson deal is eye opening and more info on that made the podcast worth listening to as well.

The Missouri guys on the podcast represented themselves well and seem like likable fellas.
 
Agreed. They covered two stories that had really captured my interest over the past year. The MO cabin arson deal is eye opening and more info on that made the podcast worth listening to as well.

The Missouri guys on the podcast represented themselves well and seem like likable fellas.
Agreed. I was really impressed with how they conducted themselves. Also frustrating to be told over and over that you're good to go only to end up in court. Feel like the state should have to pay his legal fees.
 
Here we go again? Will this finally answer the questions or just keep the ball spinning on both sides?

There are state criminal law questions that were not resolved in a precedential manner in the criminal trespass case, and even with a win in this civil case, there are appeals to be considered, so in short, we are a long way from a final precedential outcome. And even then the state can make life difficult if it wants to (see the Herrara case post SCOTUS ruling to see what I am referring to - one case rarely resolves all issues if folks want to fight).
 
I'm sure they brought up this, but there is some underlying law that I alluded to that allows for some subsurface trespass, I think basically everywhere. Some states; TX, OK, WY, and CO for sure have gone beyond that and passed force pooling statutes.

Essentially states have said that not only can you not block your neighbor but because oil comes from a common supply, it's basically impossible to leave one persons minerals in the ground while extracting another's. The fix is to create a DSU Drilling Spacing Unit, in WY these are 640 or 1280 based on 1 or 2 sections and allow an operator to develop all the lands in that unit as a group. Owners are then paid their proportion of the royalties based their mineral interest in the unit overall unit.

Long preamble (sorry) for the relevant part, you can force pool a nonconsenting private landowner into a mostly public unit. So if I take a federal lease and there is a landowner that just refuses to lease I can force pool them. This allows me to drill wells under their land and then hand them a check. In addition there is a 150% charge of risk on those royalties meaning I get to re-coop 150% of my costs for drilling that well before I have to pay the nonconsenting landowner a dime.

Here is an example of what this might look like using OnX, say the nonconsenting landowner is the T shaped tract, the operator has the BLM leased, they can force pool, create the DSU (blue) and then drill their wells (red).

*You can't force pool federal lands
View attachment 223132

IMHO what's really striking here is how far Wyoming citizens have been willing to go to allow and promote resource of extraction. We have had some pretty heated exchanges about private property rights on this thread and about some sort of eminent domain of corners etc. as a fix.

I think it's relevant and important for everyone to understand force pooling, in my mind that's kind of the bar of what we think is reasonable and permissible as far as statutes allowing trespassing.

Also if folks are wondering how common is this... depends on the state, but it's not rare.
I worked as a petroleum landman for a number of years and you've made an excellent point here, great post!
 
Agreed. They covered two stories that had really captured my interest over the past year. The MO cabin arson deal is eye opening and more info on that made the podcast worth listening to as well.

The Missouri guys on the podcast represented themselves well and seem like likable fellas.
We miss our guys are interesting. I personally know Brandon who’s cabin was burned. Spent a fair bit of time there with him and friends. Went down and helped clean up the mess when it came time. Good dude he is.
 

I put another donation in today. I know some of you are multiple donations in already. Let’s show the MO hunters that we’ve got their back!

“8.8.22 Update: Request for Additional Funding to Support Remaining Criminal and Civil Case Legal Expenses:

In the fall of 2021, four non-resident hunters were issued citations by a Carbon County Sheriff's Deputy for criminal trespass. The four hunters never touched private lands: they used a ladder to cross between adjoining corners of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Prior to this citation being issued, both the local Wyoming Game & Fish Department (WGFD) Warden and a different Carbon County Deputy had told the hunters that their actions did not constitute trespassing. After successfully harvesting elk, upon their return to their camp, the hunters were met by the awaiting Deputy and issued the citations. Rather than accepting the charge for accessing their public land and paying the fines, the hunters all pled “not guilty.” On April 29th, 2022 all criminal charges were dismissed against the four hunters. The four hunters still face a civil lawsuit filed by the landowner which will be heard in federal court. This civil suit has the potential to set precedent that could improve public access to checker boarded public lands.

Thanks to the incredible generosity of our partners and individual donors like you, Wyoming BHA (Backcountry Hunters & Anglers) has led fundraising efforts that have secured over $72,000 to cover the legal expenses for these four hunters. To date, over $80,000 has been spent on criminal and civil legal expenses. We anticipate a total cost of $26,500 per hunter or $106,000 for all four hunters to cover the remaining legal expenses from the criminal case and current legal expenses associated with the civil case now in federal court.”
 
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