Discussing new trespassing laws with land owners

Trespassing can come in different forms. Whether it’s purposefully getting into someone’s fenced off property or just accidentally coming across private land. Thursday, dozens of farmers and ranchers came out to Winther Ranch for the 14th Dehlin Range Management Workshop, where they were able to discuss the new law.

“There’s no other place you’d meet like this and you don’t get the answers,” said Harold Winther, the owner of Winther Ranch.

According to Idaho Fish and Game, “Persons are now required to have written permission or other lawful permission to enter private property.”

“We want to make sure that the landowners are taken care of,” said Paul Wilde, the sheriff of Bonneville County. “But the people that are being malicious and going outside, without permission to be on somebody’s land, that they’re taken care of.”

These new laws are held up to any “reasonable” person that would know that they are on private land. That means if you see property that is fenced, cultivated, has no trespassing signs posted, or bright orange paint on the property corner; you have a high chanced of being fined for trespassing.

“It’s amazing at the number of people that I see that think they can just come up and just go out and tear around in somebody’s cultivated field,” said Wilde.

Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office explained to residents that it will try and cite trespassers that had the ill intentions to be on there.

“What is your intent being here on this property,” Wilde said. “Are you coming to burglarize it? Are you coming to damage things? Are you just going from point A to point B? We want to really figure that out.”

The office says that it will investigate what the intent of the person was, while still working with the landowners

“Let’s work together and make sure this is a good law, and we don’t have conflict,” said Wilde.

Landowners seem excited for the new laws to be put in place.

“Now we seem like we got a law with some teeth in it,” said Winther

The law also allows the property owner to revoke access to their land at any time.

Someone convicted of criminal trespass faces a minimum $30 fine for a first conviction, $1,500 for a second conviction, and $5,000 for a third conviction. A person with a third conviction could face a felony charge if there is more than $1,000 worth of damage involved with the trespass.

The new trespassing laws go into effect on July 1.