Re: Improving Off-road Compliance

I think Rick's post says it sufficiently. It may not make sense to YOU, OMG, but it does make sense to land managers who have to balance many competing interests. The concept of reasonable and legitimate public access across some private property has been around almost as long as the concept of private property itself, about a millennia. It's roots are in Common Law, originating in the British Isles, as far as our system is concerned. Here in California, we endured a brief period where property owners did not have to mark their territory in any way. It was a nightmare in the court system, has been rescinded, and I would venture a guess that we're not headed back that way as a State. Ordinance 3973 heads us back that way in San Bernardino County. It requires that an open and unmarked plot of private land in the middle of public lands be known to anyone who may set foot or tire there, and places an unreasonable burden of research and permission gathering in order to cross such pieces of private property legally.

It is reasonable to expect an owner, who does not want people on their land, to place signs every 1/3 mile or so. They don't have to be ugly or unsightly, and it's the law everywhere except San Bernardino County. As you may know, local ordinances that conflict with either State or Federal laws are null and void.

Part of the problem here is that all private land is not the same. Most of it does not have the owner's home on it. The vast majority of private acreage has no structure on it at all, no identifying features. In the absence of fences or signs, the law assumes that the owner simply doesn't care about it as anything other than an investment or family heirloom, or a business transaction. Certainly, this is not true of all private lands, but is true in a majority of areas where OHV use is common.

Example? In Kern County (I realize this is not affected by 3973), along Twenty Mule Team Road between California City and Red Mountain, there is a patchwork of public and private lands. Without a survey crew, it's literally impossible to verify where the boundaries of public and private lands are. Some are only an acre or less. Some are 100 acres. Most private land belongs to Catellus, and there is no possible way to gain permission to recreate on their lands, and no law enforcement officer can be certain enough of the boundaries to write a citation anyway. Identifying private property while on the ground is so often impossible, that such a law cannot be enforced unless everyone knows the boundary. That's why signs and fences are so important. It lends certainty to the law, and provides for the Court's "reasonable man" doctrine.