Two conservation organizations filed a lawsuit May 14 in Lewis and Clark District Court seeking to “cement the legality” of corner crossing in Montana while respecting private property rights.
“It doesn’t matter what side of the barbed wire, or political aisle you stand on, we are all public land owners with a vested interest in our public lands,” said Ryan Callaghan, president and CEO of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. “Corner crossing while respecting private property is a practical ‘middle ground’ that the vast majority of Montanans support. Shutting the public out of 871,000 acres of public lands is not.”
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks considers corner crossing, the act of crossing from a public parcel of land to a corner-adjacent parcel, to be illegal in Montana, despite a recent federal court’s ruling that it is allowed in certain other states.
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and the Public Land & Water Access Association, jointly filed the legal complaint, saying in a press release they had met with Montana FWP representatives several times about the issue of corner crossing, but had not found a “constructive path forward from the state.”
“Montanans deserve clear, consistent guidance on how they can access their public lands,” said Alex Leone, executive director for Public Land & Water Access Association. “There is a commonsense path that respects private property while ensuring public lands aren’t effectively blocked. We’ve worked in good faith to find that solution and remain ready to do so.”
The legal maneuver comes one day after Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras, a former property law professor, gave a presentation to the Montana Environmental Quality Council reviewing relevant case law.
“I do think the law is clear that it’s a trespass, but I do acknowledge that if you’re not an attorney, you have to dig into the statutes, and it may not be clear or obvious,” Juras told the Legislative Environmental Quality Council on Wednesday. “One thing (you as a hunter) have done that is absolutely lawful, is to seek the consent and the permission of the landowner.”
But some lawmakers and conservation groups say the issue remains a legal gray area as questions remain whether a court with jurisdiction over Montana would agree with the state’s current interpretation of corner crossing as illegal trespass, or would align with last year’s U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that doing so is allowed.
“In my experience, if we talked to 10 other attorneys, we’d probably get a different interpretation,” Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers said Wednesday. “We didn’t hear from a judge today. We didn’t hear from the Ninth Circuit. We heard an opinion, a well informed opinion that I respect. And I would like to hear what kind of counterpoint arguments would be on this same topic.”
Callaghan had given his own public comment at Wednesday’s meeting, saying clarification on whether the Gianforte administration’s stance was rooted in opinion or law was needed.
Corner crossing has long been a point of contention in the West, where federal land, mapped and platted in 640-acre squares, was doled out in a checkerboard pattern to private companies such as railroads, private individuals as incentives to move west and homestead, and states.
Subdividing land into near squares means that if every-other parcel of a block of land is public, they only connect at the infinitesimal point between 90-degree corners.
According to a report by mapping software company OnX, there are 8.3 million acres of public land across the West that is corner locked, including 871,000 acres in Montana — more than half of the 1.52 million total acres of landlocked public land in the state.
Juras said that the corner-locked acreage represents less than 3% of the state’s federal lands, adding the report might not take into consideration “unlocked” lands due to the state’s many public access incentive programs.
For years, Montana has taken steps to reduce land- and corner-locked public parcels by creating incentives for landowners to grant access to hunters, hikers, and other recreational pursuits.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has approximately 70 agreements in place to open up 530,000 acres of “inaccessible or under-accessible” public land, according to Juras’ presentation. Participating landowners can receive payments of up to $15,000 a year, plus funds used to make improvements that facilitate access.
There is also the state’s Block Management framework, which pays landowners for walk-in corridors for hunters to cross public land to access adjacent public land, and conservation easements, which can permanently unlock public hunting access.
“The Gianforte administration supports public access,” Juras said. “I know this legislature — we all love to hunt. We love our public lands. We want to create public access. And you, the legislature, have funded programs that currently exist that do provide programs to enhance public access.”
Semi-binding precedent, just not in Montana?
Corner-crossing discussions have come to the forefront across the West following a high-profile lawsuit against four hunters who corner-crossed in Wyoming from one section of federal land to another.
The hunters from Missouri, in 2020, found a checkerboard corner between the public land and private parcels owned by Iron Bar Holdings. The hunters grabbed a steel post erected at the corner, and swung around it, only physically touching the public land but passing through the air above the private parcels.
In 2021, the hunters returned, and brought a portable ladder that they anchored on the public parcels, crossing over the posts and chains that denoted the corner.
The owner of Iron Bar sued for civil trespassing, but ultimately the 10th Circuit Court stated in a 2025 ruling that while Wyoming law considered corner crossing trespass, federal law held that Iron Bar could not deny access to public lands, thus the hunters’ actions were lawful since they did not physically touch private land.
An appeal to the Supreme Court was not taken up, leaving the 10th Circuit decision in place and opening access to land-locked public parcels in six western states.
“That does not mean they approved the 10th Circuit Decision,” Juras said. “They’re very busy, they pick the cases, they don’t have time to hear them all.”
And Montana is under the jurisdiction of the federal 9th Circuit Court, not the 10th.
Juras cited a 1902 decision, Potts v. United States, that held a property owner can fence in their private lands even if it shuts out the public “from any part of the public domain,” as long as that is not the landowner’s intention.
“So in my opinion, that’s the prevailing law in the Ninth Circuit,” Juras told the Council.
Juras consulted with FWP Director Christy Clark following the 10th Circuit ruling last fall and the agency later reiterated the position that corner crossing remains unlawful in Montana. In a memo issued by the department, FWP said wardens “will continue to report corner crossing cases to local county attorneys.”
But some members of the public criticized Juras’ legal interpretation during public comment.
Eric Vilen, a Helena resident, said corner-locked parcels of public land represent “a significant limitation in recreation” for ordinary citizens who do not have access to large tracts of private land, and he urged lawmakers to take up the issue.
“This affects many residents’, including myself, ability to hunt and those of us that don’t want to spend millions of dollars in a legal case simply don’t corner cross because it’s so ambiguous,” Vilen said. “I encourage the Legislature to define this one way or another so conservation groups, state agencies and, quite frankly, private industries can look at ways to make fences and address the problem we have here in Montana.”
Representatives of the Montana Farm Bureau Federation and Montana Stockgrowers Association also said clarity from the administration was crucial to their members.
“As private landowners like my membership, we want to know what the law is, too, and we do want clarity. It, of course, is our position that corner crossing is not a legal form of access,” said Kari Johnson with the Farm Bureau.
Johnson said the access programs offered by the state don’t have much participation, and higher incentives could drive greater action from landowners.
“I think there’s opportunities there where we can thread that needle, where we protect those Montana values, where we care about private property rights, we care about land stewardship, we care about wildlife management, but we also recognize that a lot of the people that are coming here are coming here because we have wonderful outdoor spaces,” Johnson said.
Raylee Honeycutt, with the Montana Stockgrowers Association, said Juras’ presentation highlighted “the importance of private property owners rights and their ability to protect the airspace and land from trespass.”
The Stockgrowers Association had filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court asking them to take up the Iron Bar decision, and was “very disappointed” when they declined to take up the issue.
“We ask for your continued support of helping us stand behind private property rights as we protect our airspace and our land and ensure that these laws that are in place are being upheld and not necessarily needing to be defined in a different way, just because organizations or groups don’t agree with what they say,” Honeycutt said.
One organization seeking more clarity is the Montana Wildlife Federation, which released a statement following the “one-sided presentation” by Juras.
“Despite the lieutenant governor’s interpretation, it appears that corner crossing in Montana remains a true legal gray area,” Executive Director Frank Szollosi said. “The bottom line is that certainty is needed for all stakeholders — including hunters, landowners, wardens, prosecutors, and public land managers.
“… lawmakers didn’t provide the clarity on corner crossing that Montanans need,” Szollosi said. “This meeting room wasn’t a courtroom. There were no new laws passed.”
Mike Volesky, a longtime FWP employee and former chief of operations and deputy director, said during public comment the administration’s current approach stands in “sharp contrast” to previous FWP memos, which directed wardens to refrain from issuing citations.
(Volesky was fired from the agency in 2024, which he alleged was politically motivated. He had previously been cited for trespassing while using a Forest Service road to access public land, charges which were later dropped.)
“The point is, this administration only takes the side of the wealthy, the powerful, the landed gentry, over the average Joe and the people of Montana,” Volesky said. “Montana, hunters and anglers and others in the outdoors should be very wary of this corner crossing executive fiat.”
To legislate or not to legislate
Lawmakers on the EQC discussed whether the Legislature should take up the issue during the 2027 session.
Bills could be brought to strengthen access programs, clarify state versus federal corner crossing laws, or create legal airspace easements that would compensate landowners for allowing corner crossing.
Two Democratic lawmakers in February wrote an opinion piece that ran in Montana media outlets saying they intend to introduce legislation in 2027 to clarify corner crossing is allowed.
Rep. Josh Seckinger, of Bozeman, told the Daily Montanan he thinks the issue will be among the important discussions among the natural resources and fish and wildlife committees.
“I think there will be competing legislation from both ways to try and make it explicitly legal and illegal,” Seckinger said.
He added that it was nice to see interested parties pursuing multiple avenues to seek clarification on the issue with Thursday’s legal filing.