Testing Boundaries

Public Access and the Fight for Public Lands

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A Public Trail Under Private Scrutiny

My go-to running spot is near the Underhill town garage. After parking, I travel north on a hemlock-shaded road that transitions to a “Legal Trail,” which eventually reconnects with the town road. The “trail” looks like a rough dirt road that most vehicles could pass, except for one section that overlaps with a stream that flows from an adjacent beaver pond.

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Signs, Surveillance, and Intimidation Tactics

This typical trail exemplifies how subtle and overt challenges by private landowners restrict public access. The town of Underhill has a right-of-way (ROW) along this trail. If you traveled it as a newcomer, you’d likely think it was a private trail, not necessarily because of how rough it is, but because of the signage.

The orange line on the left is the trail. These signs would lead reasonable people to believe that the trail ends here.

“PRIVATE PROPERTY” and “NO ACCESS TO TRAILS” signs line the trail’s edge. The ROW passes through private property. Landowners have posted these signs, causing even locals to hesitate before proceeding.

“This is Not a Public Playground”

I’ve also counted three trail cameras directly pointed at the ROW. Assuming they’re active, the landowner probably has at least three hundred pictures of me running past their cameras.

The yellow circle on the left shows the location of a game camera oriented towards the public trail. The picture on the right is a zoomed-in image of this camera.

Anecdotally, I am aware that the landowner is upset about trespassers who’ve assumed their property is public; if people have trespassed, I fully respect the landowner’s feelings of wanting to safeguard against future incursions.¹

What concerns me is how this relatively small instance of hostility toward public land use reflects broader regional and national trends.

Friends have said they won’t use the trail because they’re unnerved by the implied threat of the “Private Property” signs and constant surveillance. Misleading signs, intimidation, and other tactics (

Katie Hill

) occur throughout the country, where private landowners are increasingly emboldened to restrict public access. What’s happening five minutes from my house is happening everywhere.

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Public Lands in the U.S.: Who Owns What?

The Underhill trail issue is part of a larger story about who decides how public lands get used. The United States government owns 640 million acres of land (28% of all land in the United States), predominantly owned by the following agencies (Department of Defense land is not listed here):

The Bureau of Land Management: 244 million acres.

The Fish and Wildlife Service: 89 million acres.

The National Park Service (within the Department of the Interior): 80 million acres.

The Forest Service (within the Department of Agriculture): 193 million acres.

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Alaska:

Alaska has the most federally owned land, with 222,666,580 acres (60.9% of Alaska’s total land area).

Nevada:

The most federally owned land in the lower 48, with 56,262,610 acres (80.1% of Nevada’s total land area).

Connecticut:

The least federally owned land, with only 9,110 acres (0.3% of Connecticut’s total land area).

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• From 1990 to 2018, federal government ownership of public land declined by 31.5 million acres.

• States own approximately 8% of U.S. land (190,000,000 acres).

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National Trends Threatening Public Access

Challenges are playing out differently across the nation, from Vermont’s small-town disputes to the sweeping land policies of the West. I rely on public land for many of the activities I enjoy, so selfishly, I want to ensure these areas remain open for people to use. Challenges both near and far threaten public lands and public access. For example:

Corner Crossing

• Prevalent in the western U.S., where checkboard land patterns create land-locked private parcels. Adjacent private landowners have restricted access between corners. See OnX’s Corner-Locked Report and Backcountry Hunters & Angler’s explanation for excellent articulations.

Utah Land Grab

• Utah is trying to take 18.5 million acres from the Bureau of Land Management, so it is under state control (roughly the equivalent of 34% of the entire state). It’s well-known that state-controlled public lands are more likely to be compromised with dubious uses that don’t serve the public good, such as real estate development and privatization.

Vermont’s Trails

• Obscure laws around maintenance and access muddy the waters for Vermont’s small towns. Once upon a time, common sense was enough, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. When a landowner challenges a ROW, the town hires lawyers and spends thousands of dollars on legal fees. Consequently, towns become overly cautious in enforcing or clarifying policies out of fear of setting a precedent that will have widespread ramifications.

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Balancing Public and Private Interests

Another serious issue is the conflation of public and private interests, such as development and resource extraction. I support these activities when conducted in a fair and open manner that benefits the landowners (in this case, the American public).

Multiple uses are possible on these lands, and while some remain highly contested (e.g., drilling in Alaska, motorized vehicle use), the processes for voicing concerns are well-established. Public good can have many meanings (e.g., access to hiking trails vs. mineral extraction). The immediate problem is cases like the Utah example listed above, where wholesale ownership transfer to states attempts to change what activities will be possible on the land.

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What You Can Do to Protect Public Lands

• I joined Backcountry Hunters & Anglers because they actively work to preserve access and educate the public. And though they focus on hunters and anglers, their efforts benefit all users of public lands.

This is an image from one of the sweatshirts you can buy from Backcountry Hunters & Anglers to support their work to keep public lands in public hands.

• Learn about public lands, which are your lands. Visit state and federal properties you’re entitled to, including Wildlife Management Areas. Understand your rights as a public landowner.

• Explore, discover, and keep using public land. If a misinformed landowner approaches, de-escalate, move on, and contact the appropriate authorities. Don’t be intimidated or give up.

• Federal and state governments are the largest public landowners, but land trusts across the country help people access private lands by either owning properties outright or holding certain rights that allow the public to access them.

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Taking a Stand for Public Access Rights

Initially annoyed by the landowner’s game cameras, I considered taking my running routine elsewhere, avoiding the public trail. But that’s precisely what they want: for me, for us, and everyone, to stop using the property. So now I wave for the camera as I run by, a subtle but active reminder to the landowner that it’s actually the public that’s watching them.

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1. Vermont has instances of people building trails on private and State property without permission. Lisa Lynn’s opinion piece, Trail, Ethics, and Entitlement, describes these activities in the October/November 2024 issue of Vermont Sports Magazine. The digital edition should be available on their website soon.