GREAT FALLS – Legislation has been proposed to levy stiffer state fines on Montana landowners who illegally gate roads and require that they show proof of ownership before blocking access.
The two Great Falls lawmakers who are sponsoring the bills said in a statement that their goal is to improve public access to public lands by keeping roads they say are public open.
The bills are backed by wildlife and public access groups, and opposed by private property and ranching interests.
Private landowners and hunters and anglers increasingly are butting heads in court over remote roads into the state’s forests, mountains and rivers. At issue in these cases are whether roads crossing private land are public or private. The roads have become contentious because they often cross private acreage leading to public lands.
House Bill 304 is sponsored by Mitch Tropila, D-Great Falls, and would increase the penalty for gating a public road from $10 a day to $500 a day.
“This bill will clarify language in our state laws, raise the penalty for failing to remove an obstacle and ultimately solve disputes over access quickly and fairly for everyone involved,” Tropila told the Great Falls Tribune.
The second bill, House Bill 286, is sponsored by Rep. Tom Jacobson, D-Great Falls. It would require that individuals wishing to close a public road first contact local officials and legally prove that the road should be closed. A disputed road would have to remain open until it’s proven to be a private road.
“The burden of proof should not be on the public who have used these roads for decades,” said Jacobson, calling access the No. 1 issue for hunters and anglers.
The Montana Wildlife Federation and Public Land/Water Access Association are pushing the bills to address what they say is a growing problem of people blocking off large tracts of public land by gating public rights of way.
Hunters and anglers are extremely frustrated with the loss of access, and have proof it’s occurring, said George Golie of Great Falls, a lobbyist for the Montana Wildlife Federation.
“It’s just going to get bigger and bigger as we go along until some of our issues are addressed on road closures,” Golie said.
Chuck Denowh, director for United Property Owners of Montana, said requiring landowners to legally prove that they have the right to block access to their own road violates the basic right of due process.
“It’s assuming guilt and saying landowners have to prove their innocence,” Denowh said. “It’s never been the way we’ve done things in this country.”
The bill increasing the fine is “an extremely hostile bill,” he added.
“It doesn’t do anything to improve access in Montana,” he said. “We need to look for solutions that bring people together not cause division.”
Landowners are feeling targeted by public access groups, with their private roads on private land at stake, Denowh said.
Disputes over roads often are drawn out for years and involve court proceedings and expensive legal fees, he noted. He said he recently spoke to one landowner who had been fighting to retain his rights to a road for eight years.
John Gibson, president of the Public Land/Water Access Association, said the bills are meant to address the issue so the public can enjoy public lands.
“In some cases these closures are done by outfitters who are privatizing not only the public land behind the gate, but also our cherished public wildlife, and that’s wrong,” Gibson said.
Jay Bodner, natural resource director for the Montana Stockgrowers Association, said road disputes are isolated, and he would like to see them addressed in in more cooperative ways.
“I don’t know that a wholesale legislation to change the process is needed,” Bodner said.
The stock growers group is opposed to both bills.
Requiring landowners to legally prove to county officials they own the roads before they close them isn’t practical, he said.
The Montana Stockgrowers Association would support legislation requiring an inventory of the roads in question because it would provide better information to counties, Bodner said. Legislation requiring an inventory is being drafted, he said.