There were two major victories in 2025 for citizens who use and love public lands.
The first was the bipartisan rejection of Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s lust for destroying the public lands legacy that is a fundamental element of freedom and prosperity in the American West.
Lee thought he could slip destructive public-lands legislation into the budget reconciliation bill in the spring. Fortunately, the effort failed, epically. Since reconciliation bills require only a majority vote in the Senate for passage, instead of the 60 votes normally required to break a filibuster, Lee was betting he could sneak his wildly unpopular land sell-off into the must-pass, Big Beautiful Bill.
If anything, Lee only further moved his Republican colleagues in Congress in the direction of protecting and preserving public lands. The GOP has been on the wrong side of this issue for years, but that is changing, led in part by Montana’s all-Republican congressional delegation, which seems to recognize selling public lands is a toxic idea in the Treasure State.
Lee went so far as to exempt Montana from his bill, but even that couldn’t save it.
Lee won’t be up for reelection until 2028. Hopefully, by then, Utahans will be ready to replace their senator with someone who fights for the rights of hunters and anglers, rather than undermining them.
Public landowners and users, especially hunters and anglers, know what a resource public lands provide the people of this country. Montana is arguably the greatest place in the known universe for public-land hunting and fishing, but that doesn’t mean Montanans don’t travel. There are fishing and hunting opportunities across the West, magnificent places we can visit, and with a proper license, fish or hunt without asking anyone’s permission.
The other big story of 2025 was the victory for public landowners accessing their property via corner crossings. The battle over corner crossings has been a long, disappointing slog, especially so because the opposition is essentially a bunch of too-rich-for-society’s-good, out-of-state landowners who have blustered and intimidated their way into claiming exclusive access to public property as some sort of birthright.
The degree to which this exclusivity is pursued would be absurd if it wasn’t also dangerous. In Wyoming — where the access dispute that ultimately resulted in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that confirmed corner crossing was legal — the hunters who challenged the No Trespassing signs reported they were harassed on public land by the hired hands that worked at the adjoining ranch.
This sort of thing, the hazing of armed citizens — not that these hunters we’re looking to shoot anything other than game — could easily and dangerously escalate.
Pro tip: if you think someone is trespassing, don’t be a hero. Call law enforcement.
Another, more extreme example of harassment occurred last month, when a group of hunters were helicoptered into a landlocked piece of public ground in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains, where they killed four trophy bull elk.
But the day after they’d filled their tags the hunters caught an adjoining landowner making off with the skull and antlers one of the men planned for the taxidermist. This was widely reported, as one of the hunters is an editor for Outdoor Life. The group recorded video of the encounter with the rancher, who told the men he didn’t want them “hunting on this outfit.”
Guided hunts into this landlocked island of liberty cost $8-10,000. The group did the math and determined it was cheaper to charter flights in and out. The corner-crossing ruling wouldn’t have mattered here, however. Corners weren’t the issue.
The entitlement of some landowners whose property abuts public land is staggering. In the present environment, further confrontations seem a certainty.
Let’s hope the courts further strengthen the legality of corner crossing (when properly executed) in 2026. I’m talking to you, Ninth Circuit; 2026 seems a good year to get this done.