Opposition to SB 78

To the Editor:

After reading Mr. Horelick's editorial (and the accusations therein) on Wednesday, May 9th in the Western News on SB 78, I felt compelled to respond.

SB 78 would not have helped sportsman/landowner relationships in this state; in fact, it would have done just the opposite. Paving an avenue to land property owners in court because someone doesn't feel that a fence is legal will not enhance relationships between landowners and recreationalists.

I agree that a person should not need a lawyer to determine if a fence is legal, this is why I opposed the bill. SB 78 allowed any citizen to determine a fence restricted their access and then enter into forced arbitration, at the landowner?s expense. This could happen even if it had been climbed over by anglers for fifty years. The most troubling part of the bill (besides putting the onus on landowners for the court costs) is that it took THREE pages to define a "legal" fence that didn't obstruct one's ability to access. What is the definition of obstruct? Why should it take three pages to define? The resulting ambiguity would not have clarified legal lingo, it would have jumbled legal definitions providing an atmosphere for hand ringing lawyers. Again, this would be at the landowner?s expense.

All of the fences attached to bridges are on land that is owned by private individuals who pay taxes on them. These taxes help fund the local governments that should, by statute, resolve the problem of fences built to prohibit access. In the committee hearings on the bill, when FWP was asked how many of these situations we were talking about, there was three identified- all on the Ruby River. The department did not identify any other bridges for our committee to consider, it certainly didn?t provide a list of 131.

As both a landowner and recreationalist, I do indeed take pride in helping stop a bill that would have been onerous to landowners and weakened all sportsman/landowner relationships statewide. Our local governments have the ability to fix the handful of bridge access problems in this state. Let's hope the raised awareness of this responsibility produces results.

Chas Vincent,

Representative