The Lawsuit That Could Open Nearly a Million Acres
Two of the country's most respected public land organizations have taken Montana's government to court over a question that hunters and outdoorsmen across the West have been wrestling with for years: Is it legal to step from one piece of federal public land to another when the only thing separating them is a corner point where four sections meet?
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and the Public Land Water Access Association jointly filed a lawsuit on May 14 in Lewis and Clark County District Court, targeting Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The goal is straightforward — get a court to settle once and for all whether corner crossing is legal in the state, and in doing so, potentially unlock access to roughly 871,000 acres of federally owned public land that is currently considered off-limits because of how property lines converge.
That number comes from a widely cited report by onX, the mapping company, and it represents a staggering amount of land that hunters, anglers, and hikers simply cannot reach without crossing private property — or so the state of Montana currently argues.
What Is Corner Crossing, and Why Does It Matter
For anyone unfamiliar with the term, corner crossing refers to the act of moving from one section of public land to an adjacent section of public land at a point where the two parcels meet at a single corner — a spot where four squares of land touch at a single diagonal point. No private ground is physically stepped on. The person moving across simply goes from one public parcel to the next at that exact corner.
In most of the American West, the federal land survey system created what is sometimes called a checkerboard pattern of land ownership, where sections of public and private land alternate in a grid. This means that millions of acres of public land are surrounded on all sides by private property, with no road or trail providing legal access. The only practical way in for a hunter on foot is to use those diagonal corner points.
For decades, this was largely a gray area that nobody pushed too hard. County attorneys across Montana historically declined to prosecute people for corner crossing, and past internal legal memos from the state show that game wardens were specifically asked not to cite corner crossers. The law, in practice, was not being enforced.
That started to change.
The State's Position Hardens — and the Timing Raises Eyebrows
The BHA and PLWA lawsuit landed one day after Montana Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras told a legislative council meeting in Helena that corner crossing is illegal in Montana. Critics were quick to point out that Juras was offering a legal interpretation, not quoting a specific statute. Montana law, they argued, does not actually spell this out as clearly as the state is now suggesting.
Following the United States Supreme Court's decision last year not to take up a Wyoming corner crossing case — a case that had effectively legalized the practice across six states, not including Montana — MFWP Director Christy Clark publicly reaffirmed the agency's stance that corner crossing is illegal in Montana.
That position sits awkwardly against the state's own history. The same agency that is now drawing a hard line against corner crossing previously instructed its wardens not to write citations for it, because the counties were not interested in prosecuting it. Critics say the agency is now taking a firmer political stance that does not match what the law actually says.
BHA President and CEO Ryan Callaghan addressed this shift directly. "I asked the director of FWP very directly last week, 'In our point of view, there has been an escalation in the statements around corner crossing from the state. Why is that?' The response is, because they've had an increase in people trespassing not at the corner," he said. "But that doesn't have anything to do with corner crossing. That's akin to me going into the doctor's office and saying I have a toothache and they amputate my arm. It's a big procedure but it doesn't address the issue."
Trespassing Is a Real Problem — But It's a Different Problem
Callaghan and BHA are not dismissing landowner concerns. Walking across private property without permission is trespassing, full stop. Nobody in the public access community is arguing otherwise. The tension in Montana between private agricultural landowners and an increasing number of people coming from out of state to hunt and recreate on public land is real, and the complaints from ranchers and farmers deserve to be taken seriously.
The problem, as BHA sees it, is that the state is using trespassing concerns as a reason to crack down on corner crossing — which is a separate act entirely.
"It sounds like there is a trespassing issue. That's a very serious thing in every state. We need to educate [hunters] on what trespassing is. It sounds like there's frustrations with our agricultural community and people seeking access. We need to address that and provide that education," Callaghan said.
That distinction matters. A hunter who walks across private land without permission is committing trespassing. A hunter who steps diagonally from one piece of federal land to another touching piece of federal land at a corner point is doing something fundamentally different. Conflating the two, critics argue, is how 871,000 acres of public land ends up effectively privatized — not by any law or legislation, but by bureaucratic interpretation and selective enforcement.
The "Problem Corners" Argument
One of the more nuanced objections raised by Lieutenant Governor Juras and others opposing corner crossing legalization involves what are called "problem corners." These are corner points where survey stakes are missing, damaged, placed on trees that have since fallen or moved, or where GPS coordinates and physical markers simply do not line up the way they should.
The argument goes that if corner crossing is legal, hunters and hikers will inevitably end up crossing onto private land because they cannot accurately identify where the corner actually is. It is a reasonable concern on its face.
BHA has a response to it. The organization developed a mapping tool specifically designed to identify problem corners — a resource that allows members of the public to flag corners that are unclear, missing markers, or otherwise difficult to navigate. The idea is that once problem corners are catalogued, they can be addressed through conversations with adjacent landowners and the relevant land management agencies.
"They are acknowledging, 'If corner crossing is legal, what about all these problem corners, and all the problems that can come from this?' We are aware that not every corner is visible, or straightforward, which is why we developed a tool to identify the problem corners. And once identified, we can work with adjacent landowners and agencies to find a solution," Callaghan said. "The other thing that needs to be acknowledged is the vast majority of this happens where there are no fences, no private fences or BLM fences. These corners are out there in the great wide open."
In other words, the problem corners issue is real, but it is manageable — and it is not a reason to declare all corner crossing illegal when the physical act itself, at a properly marked and identifiable corner, involves no contact with private property at all.
A History of Talks That Went Nowhere
The lawsuit did not come out of nowhere. Representatives from both BHA and PLWA had been meeting with Montana FWP officials multiple times before filing the complaint. According to a statement from BHA, those conversations were focused on finding "a commonsense, collaborative solution that ensures private property is respected and public lands are not unlawfully enclosed."
Those talks stalled. Progress was not made. And with the state's tone on corner crossing growing sharper and more definitive — particularly following the Supreme Court's refusal to take up the Wyoming case — the two groups decided the courts were the only remaining path to a clear answer.
BHA framed the lawsuit explicitly as an attempt to keep the issue in the realm of law and process rather than letting it become purely a political football. The organization said the suit is "a deliberate effort to keep the issue grounded in law and process rather than politics, ensuring clear direction for accessing Montana's public lands — the cornerstone of Montana's outdoor heritage and way of life."
What Comes Next
Lieutenant Governor Juras, speaking during a Montana State Bar webinar on the same day the lawsuit was filed, indicated that she expects legislators to introduce a bill on corner crossing during the 2027 state legislative session. She did not offer specifics about what that legislation might look like or which direction it might go.
That legislative timeline is still two years out. In the meantime, the lawsuit filed in Lewis and Clark County District Court may well produce an answer before lawmakers get the chance to weigh in. If the court rules in favor of BHA and PLWA, the practical effect would be to legally open access to nearly 871,000 acres of federal land in Montana that hunters and outdoorsmen currently cannot reach.
For the millions of Americans who travel to Montana to hunt elk, deer, and other big game — or who simply want to fish its rivers and walk its public land — that outcome would represent one of the most significant public access victories in recent memory.
The case also carries weight beyond Montana's borders. Even though the Supreme Court declined to take up the Wyoming corner crossing case that had legalized the practice in neighboring states, the legal and political momentum around this issue is clearly building. A definitive ruling from a Montana court could set the stage for similar actions in other states where the checkerboard land pattern leaves enormous amounts of public land inaccessible.
The Bigger Picture for Public Land Access
This fight is about more than a single step at a corner marker on a mountain somewhere in rural Montana. It is about the foundational principle that public land in America belongs to the public — not just in theory, but in practice, with actual access on the ground.
The checkerboard ownership pattern that exists across much of the West is a legacy of how this country was settled and how land was granted to railroads and other interests in the 19th century. It was never designed to lock average Americans out of their own public land. But that is increasingly the effect when states adopt interpretations of trespass law that treat stepping from one public parcel to an adjacent public parcel as a crime.
Montana has built an enormous part of its identity and economy around hunting and fishing. The state's outdoor heritage is not a marketing slogan — it is genuinely woven into how communities across the state live and work. The argument that corner crossing threatens that heritage does not hold up well when the alternative is allowing nearly a million acres of federal land to remain functionally inaccessible.
The lawsuit from Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and the Public Land Water Access Association is asking a court to bring legal clarity to a question the state has been dancing around for years. Whether that clarity comes from the courts or eventually from the legislature, one thing is increasingly evident: the era of leaving this issue unresolved is coming to an end.
