Two conservation groups are suing to unlock nearly a million acres of public land that hunters can't legally reach
In mid-May 2025, a lawsuit quietly filed in Lewis and Clark County District Court set off what could become one of the most consequential public land access battles in Montana history. Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and the Public Land & Water Access Association took aim at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, asking a judge to settle once and for all whether hunters and anglers can legally step from the corner of one piece of public land to the corner of another — without ever touching private ground.
The stakes are enormous. According to the groups, the outcome of this case could determine whether roughly 871,000 acres of Montana's public land remains effectively off-limits to the people who own it.
What Corner Crossing Actually Is
The concept sounds simple enough. Imagine a checkerboard — public parcels and private parcels arranged in an alternating grid. In many parts of the West, federal land sits diagonally adjacent to other federal land, with private property filling in the squares between. The only way to get from one public parcel to the next is to step diagonally across the point where all four corners meet — what's known as a "corner cross."
No one sets foot on private land. No fences are cut. No crops are damaged. The person simply passes through a geometric point in space.
Despite this, the legality of that single step has been fiercely disputed for years.
How It Got to This Point
The legal momentum behind this lawsuit didn't start in Montana. It started in Wyoming, where a group of hunters made headlines after they used a stepladder to corner-cross onto federal land and were subsequently hit with criminal trespass charges by a private landowner. The case wound its way through the courts, and in 2024 the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that corner crossing on federal land does not violate federal law.
That ruling was celebrated loudly across the hunting and conservation community. But it came with a catch. The Tenth Circuit's jurisdiction only covers six states — Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. Montana sits just outside that boundary, which meant the ruling carried no binding legal weight there.
Advocates pushed Montana to adopt the same standard voluntarily. State officials refused.
Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras has been among the most vocal opponents, repeatedly stating that corner crossing amounts to trespassing under Montana law. As recently as the week the lawsuit was filed, she gave a presentation in which she argued that "the law is clear that it's a trespass," citing state statutes.
A Quiet Policy Reversal That Changed Everything
What makes this lawsuit particularly pointed is that it isn't just about a philosophical disagreement between conservationists and state government. According to Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the agency being sued had long operated under a different standard.
"For decades, FWP wardens have been explicitly instructed not to issue citations for individuals who access public lands in this manner," the group explained in a press release. In other words, the practice existed in a kind of unofficial tolerance for a long time — wardens looked the other way, hunters accessed remote public ground, and no one made it a criminal matter.
That changed when FWP issued new administrative guidance declaring corner crossing unlawful and reversed course entirely, instructing wardens to cite anyone who accesses public land this way with criminal trespass or hunting without landowner permission.
BHA and PLWA are calling that reversal an overreach of administrative authority and are challenging it head-on in court.
Why 871,000 Acres Matters
The number that keeps coming up — 871,000 acres — deserves some unpacking. That's not wilderness no one ever wanted to visit. That's hunting country, fishing country, country that belongs to every American taxpayer on paper but that a person can't legally reach without crossing private property.
Nationally, the problem is even larger. An OnX report placed the total amount of "corner-locked" federal land across the West at roughly 8.3 million acres. These are parcels that exist on a map, show up in the tax rolls, and are managed by federal agencies — but as a practical matter, they might as well be private for anyone who doesn't own a helicopter or the goodwill of a neighboring rancher.
For hunters specifically, this represents a significant loss of opportunity. Much of the most remote, lightly pressured public land falls into this category. The elk that don't see many hunters are often the elk on parcels you can't legally reach.
What the Two Groups Are Asking For
The lawsuit, filed in Lewis and Clark County District Court, is seeking what the organizations describe as a "durable resolution" — something that goes beyond a temporary policy shift and establishes a clear legal standard that can't simply be reversed by the next agency director.
Ryan Callaghan, BHA's President and CEO, framed the issue in terms that resonate beyond any partisan divide. "It doesn't matter what side of the barbed wire, or political aisle you stand on, we are all public landowners with a vested interest in our public lands," he said. "Corner crossing while respecting private property is a practical 'middle ground' that the vast majority of Montanans support. Shutting the public out of 871,000 acres of public lands is not."
PLWA's Executive Director Alex Leone echoed that tone, emphasizing that his organization hasn't come to the courtroom looking for a fight. "There is a commonsense path that respects private property while ensuring public lands aren't effectively blocked," he said. "We've worked in good faith to find that solution and remain ready to do so."
The Respect for Private Property Argument
One thing both organizations have been careful to stress is that corner crossing — done properly — doesn't harm private landowners. The person crossing touches a single geometric point. They don't walk through fields, disturb livestock, damage fences, or set foot on anyone's pasture. What they do is access land that belongs to the public.
Critics of corner crossing have sometimes framed it as a threat to ranching families and rural communities. Proponents push back hard on that framing, arguing that the real issue isn't trespass — it's control. Some private landowners effectively gain exclusive hunting access to adjoining federal land simply by virtue of geography. The corner-crossing debate, in that sense, is also a debate about who actually benefits from public land and who gets to decide.
A History of On-the-Ground Support
The organizations behind this lawsuit aren't newcomers to the issue. BHA in particular has been fighting the corner-crossing battle across multiple states for years. The hunting media outlet MeatEater previously raised more than $66,000 for the Wyoming BHA Corner Crossing Defense Fund, helping to bankroll the legal effort that eventually led to the Tenth Circuit ruling.
Mark Kenyon, MeatEater's Director of Conservation and a sitting board member of BHA's North American Board of Directors, weighed in on the Montana lawsuit directly. "This new effort represents just the latest example of BHA being willing to go out on a limb and do the hard work necessary to ensure a better future for public lands and access to them for hunters and anglers," he said. "I'm eager to see the fruits of the labor."
That kind of institutional backing — combined with years of legal groundwork laid by the Wyoming case — gives the Montana lawsuit more heft than a typical advocacy filing.
What Comes Next
The lawsuit is now working through the Lewis and Clark County District Court system. No timeline has been announced for a ruling, and it's entirely possible the case could be appealed regardless of which way the lower court decides. Montana's state government has shown no sign of softening its position, and the Lieutenant Governor's recent public presentations suggest the administration intends to fight this.
What's clear is that the legal landscape around corner crossing is shifting faster than it has in decades. The Tenth Circuit ruling cracked open the door. The Montana lawsuit is an attempt to push it further.
For hunters who've stared at an OnX map and watched a promising elk basin sit just out of legal reach, this case is about more than legal theory. It's about whether "public land" actually means what it says.
