Access bill shot down by southern Idaho lawmakers

A lobbyist for one of Idaho’s largest landowners pushed a bill through the Legislature last year that mandates a fine for trespassers and puts the onus of knowing private property boundaries on hunters and anglers.

The law was passed to the consternation of people who spend a lot of time tramping around the out of doors.

When a sportsman group this year attempted to counter the latest trespass law with a bill (SB1089) that would have made landowners responsible for knowing their own property boundaries, prohibiting people from falsely posting public ground, and from illegally — and willfully — blocking or putting gates on public easements, the bill died in committee.

Brian Brooks of the Idaho Wildlife Federation, who sponsored the latest bill, calls the double standard a shame, and accuses lawmakers in Boise of standing with monied interests instead of its sportsmen and women.

“As much as they cite access issues, it’s not on the top of their docket,” Brooks said. “A locked gate is not a priority.”

Brooks appeared before the Senate’s Resources and Environment Committee earlier this month to apprise lawmakers that current law provides no quarter for an honest mistake. Sportsmen can be prosecuted no matter how innocuous their alleged trespass — while the Idaho Wildlife Federation bill provided landowners with leeway to fix their posting, gating or fencing transgressions.

The intent of his bill he said, was “to deter anyone from a purposeful and flagrant access obstruction.”

Current laws already exist that prohibit posting no trespassing signs on public land, access or easements purchased with sportsman dollars, Brooks said, but they fail to dissuade the illegal practices.

An opinion from the attorney general read in committee stated Brooks’ bill raised no constitutional concerns nor did it “infringe property rights or create any new rights of entry on private land.”

Instead, according to the letter it promoted public access, “which is incredibly important to Idahoans.”

Regardless, six committee members including Steve Bair, R-Blackfoot; Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson; Jim Guthrie, R-Inkom; Lee Heider, R-Twin Falls; Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls; and Jim Patrick, R-Twin Falls, killed the bill.

Dan Johnson, R-Lewiston; Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum; and Maryanne Jordan, D-Boise, voted in favor of the legislation.

Gary Allen, a Boise attorney who spoke against the bill, rallied opposition for the legislation. Allen also lobbied for, and helped pass last year’s trespass law when he was not registered as a lobbyist, according to an email exchange with the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office.

Lobbying a political body without being registered is illegal. Allen wouldn’t tell Timothy Hurst, the chief deputy of the secretary of state, who paid him, according to a 2018 email exchange.

Brooks said Allen worked for Dan and Farris Wilks, Texas billionaires who in 2016 began buying thousands of acres of land in southern Idaho and raising concerns when they kicked out logging interests and blocked public easements, according to reports.

Brooks said the current trespass law include fines of up to $50,000 while the state law against falsely closing off access lacks penalties.

“It’s a law that has no teeth,” Brooks said. “We are seeing people getting away with taking public resources from citizens.”