House packed for debate on 'corner crossing'

Rep. Kris Hansen, R-Gavre, vorted against bringing the bill to the floor. Rep. Clarena Brockie, D-Harlem, voted yes. Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Chinook, was excused.

HELENA (AP) — The Montana House on Monday rejected a plan that aimed to give hunters and others access at "corner crossings" to public land that is intermingled with private land in a checkerboard pattern.

Hunters and advocacy groups packed the chamber in support of the measure, seeking access to patches of government land that meet at corners. Supporters of House Bill 235 said denying access at such corners ensures that mega-land owners like Ted Turner can lock up blocks of public land.

AP Photo/Matt Gouras

Rep. Kelly Flynn pitches a Republican measure aimed at increasing hunter access. While Democrats tried to advance their plan to let hunters and others access government land intermingled with private land at so-called "corner crossings." on Monday.

"This law would no longer criminalize a Montana sportsman from jumping from one corner of public land to another corner of public land," said Rep. Ellie Hill, D-Missoula. "We are talking about hopscotch folks, leaping from one corner of public property without touching any private land."

Hill said the measure would ensure access to more than 800,000 acres of landlocked public parcels.

Backers, led by Democrats, were trying to get the measure out of a committee where it had been tabled. Republicans used their majority in the chamber to easily defeat that motion. It only received 45 votes, instead of support from 60 out of 100 in the chamber needed to meet a procedural threshold.

Republican critics argued there is no way to cross at the corners without trespassing, even if a person knows exactly where the property lines intersect. They argued a person's hips and shoulders would cross the airspace at the intersection of the four corners while hopping between parcels.

"It is not about playing hopscotch, it is about trespassing across private property," said Rep. Jeffrey Wellborn, R-Dillon.

Wellborn said other measures are needed that can be supported by both hunters and landowners.

"I believe this is going to further drive a wedge between landowners and sportsmen," Wellborn said of the corner-crossing bill. "We need to come together, not further drive that wedge between us."

Republicans instead advanced a bill that puts more money into the Block Management Program that pays landowners for hunter access. They said House Bill 404, carried by Rep. Kelly Flynn of Townsend, is one of several measures in the works to improve hunter access.

Democrats argued it wrongly takes the money from a habitat program and said that payments to Montana farmers won't help gain access to land they argue is mostly locked up in private hunting preserves for the wealthy.

Advocacy and hunting groups coordinated a rally Monday to coincide with the move on the House floor to blast the corner crossing bill out of committee. They were not impressed with the alternate proposal that paid some landowners for access to farm land, which they argued is not generally prime hunting habitat.

Bill Berg, of Lewistown, with the Russell Country Sportsmen, said jumping over an intersection of land at the corners isn't trespass any more than an airplane that flies over.

The advocates promised to keep pushing the issue.

"This corner crossing problem is not going to go away. It needs to be addressed," Berg said.