Corner crossing in Montana is treated as unlawful by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, and game wardens continue to refer cases to county attorneys for prosecution. That is the operative reality in the field today, even after the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in March 2025 that federal law protects the practice in Wyoming. Montana sits in the Ninth Circuit, the state’s courts have never ruled directly on the question, and the agency’s position dictates what happens if a warden encounters you stepping between two diagonal public sections.
Roughly 1.95 million acres of Montana public land can be reached only by crossing private property, and most of that acreage is landlocked because of the checkerboard pattern left by 19th-century railroad grants. Odd-numbered sections went to the railroad, even-numbered sections stayed public, and two public squares often touch only at a single point where four corners meet. Stepping across that point without touching the surrounding private ground is corner crossing. Whether it counts as trespass is the fight.
What FWP Will Do If a Warden Finds You
In January 2026, following the Tenth Circuit’s decision in Iron Bar Holdings v. Cape, FWP Director Christy Clark issued a memo reaffirming that corner crossing remains unlawful under Montana law. The agency said it would keep referring corner-crossing cases to local county attorneys. Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras cited a 1902 Ninth Circuit decision, Potts v. United States, as controlling precedent in Montana’s federal circuit.
In practice, expect a field contact at the corner point and a potential referral for criminal trespass or a hunting-access violation. The agency’s stance carries weight regardless of whether it would hold up in court, because it governs what wardens do before any judge ever sees the question.
The Two Statutes You Can Be Charged Under
Two Montana laws matter at a corner point, and they work very differently.
The first is general criminal trespass under MCA 45-6-203, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500, up to six months in county jail, or both.1Montana State Legislature. Montana Code 45-6-203 – Criminal Trespass to Property A nuance many people miss: this statute only applies to posted land. Under MCA 45-6-201, you have the privilege to enter unposted private land unless the owner personally tells you to leave. FWP states plainly that “a person is not trespassing if the landowner does not provide notice of a private property boundary.”2Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Posting Private Land If none of the four parcels around the corner are properly posted, the general trespass statute wouldn’t apply.
The second is MCA 87-6-415, which targets hunting on private land without the landowner’s permission. This one does not depend on posting, and its definition of “hunt” includes entering private land to access public land for hunting purposes.3Montana State Legislature. Montana Code 87-6-415 – Failure to Obtain Landowner’s Permission for Hunting This is the provision most likely to be used against someone corner crossing during hunting season.
Penalties under 87-6-415:
- First offense: fine of $135 to $500.3Montana State Legislature. Montana Code 87-6-415 – Failure to Obtain Landowner’s Permission for Hunting
- Second offense within five years: fine of $500 to $1,000, mandatory forfeiture of all hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses, and loss of those privileges for one to three years. A court can also order restitution for property damage.3Montana State Legislature. Montana Code 87-6-415 – Failure to Obtain Landowner’s Permission for Hunting
A conviction under the general trespass statute while hunting, fishing, or trapping also triggers revocation of those privileges for up to 24 months.1Montana State Legislature. Montana Code 45-6-203 – Criminal Trespass to Property Landowners can file a separate civil trespass suit for damages, and a civil case can run alongside the criminal one.
Why the Legal Question Is Unsettled
Corner crossing is physically unlike ordinary trespass. A person using a ladder or stile can pass over the corner point without touching private ground. The legal question is whether briefly occupying the airspace above private land counts as entering it.
The common-law tradition treats the surface owner as holding rights to the airspace immediately above the ground, which is the theory landowners rely on. Recreationists counter that no physical contact with the land means no real intrusion. Montana has no court ruling applying “premises” in MCA 45-6-203 to airspace at a corner point, and the legislature has not addressed it either.
One piece of recent state law cuts against corner crossers at the margins. Senate Bill 493, passed in 2025, created a criminal trespass offense for flying a drone below 200 feet over private land, which could be read as a legislative view that low-altitude airspace belongs to the landowner.
The Iron Bar Ruling and Why It Doesn’t Settle Montana
Four Wyoming hunters used a ladder to step between two diagonal public sections without touching land owned by Iron Bar Holdings. The ranch sued. A federal district court sided with the hunters, and in March 2025 the Tenth Circuit affirmed.4Justia. Iron Bar Holdings v. Cape
The reasoning matters. The Tenth Circuit agreed corner crossing is a civil trespass under Wyoming common law because Wyoming treats property rights as extending into airspace. But it held that the federal Unlawful Inclosures Act of 1885 preempts state trespass claims when a landowner’s assertion of rights has the effect of completely enclosing public land.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Unlawful Inclosures or Occupancy; Obstructing Settlement or Transit That federal statute applies nationwide.
Montana falls within the Ninth Circuit, so the ruling does not bind Montana courts, and FWP has pointed to that gap in holding its enforcement line. The federal preemption argument is available to a Montana defendant, but until a court within the Ninth Circuit applies the reasoning here, you cannot count on it to prevent a charge or a conviction.
What Could Change
Two developments could shift the answer.
Conservation organizations have sued FWP over the January 2026 memo, arguing it amounts to an administrative rule adopted without following the Montana Administrative Procedure Act. The plaintiffs want a court to declare the agency’s interpretation wrong and in conflict with federal law. A ruling in that case could force Montana’s judiciary to address corner crossing directly for the first time.
On the legislative side, Rep. Josh Seckinger and Sen. Ellie Boldman have drafted a bill to explicitly legalize corner crossing in Montana. It is expected to be taken up when the legislature next convenes. Whether it passes in a body that has historically favored private property protections is an open question.
How to Reach Landlocked Public Land Legally Right Now
If a public parcel you want to reach sits behind a corner, there are three ways to get there without risking a citation.
The most reliable is to ask the surrounding landowner for permission directly. Written permission removes the question entirely.
FWP’s Unlocking Public Lands program pays enrolled landowners a $750 annual tax credit per agreement, up to $3,000 per year, to allow public passage across their land to otherwise inaccessible public parcels. Access must run for at least six months, starting no later than June 30 and continuing through December 31. The access is a corridor only, not a right to hunt or recreate on the private land you pass through. Parcels already in Block Management or similar programs are not eligible.6Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Unlocking Public Lands
Block Management compensates landowners up to $17 per hunter-day, capped at $50,000 per agreement, to open private land for public hunting from September 1 through January 1. Some agreements include corridors to landlocked public ground, and FWP’s online maps show enrolled properties.7Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Block Management
Both programs depend on willing landowners, and much of Montana’s landlocked public acreage remains unreachable through either one. If you are navigating near corners on your own, FWP’s Hunt Planner map can help identify ownership boundaries, but the agency warns the maps are a guide only and that “it is every hunter’s responsibility to know the land ownership of the area they are hunting.”8Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Hunt Planner Map A GPS error on a boundary app is not a defense to a trespass charge.