IWF's Public Access Protection Act Is Resurrected

After the House Resources Committee voted last week along party lines to kill the Public Access Protection Act (PAPA), refusing to even give it a print hearing and denying the public an opportunity to comment (for or against), the Senate Resources Committee went the other direction and approved a print hearing. Voting no was Senators Bair (R-Blackfoot). Mortimer (R-Idaho Falls), and Johnson (R-Lewiston).

An example of an illegal gate, which PAPA would give the people the legal power to remove.

That means the legislation is finally a bill. PAPA is now officially S 1317.

But what is PAPA? The bill would help in preventing anyone from claiming public property as their own. It shouldn’t be a hard ask of legislators to pass legislation stating, “post and gate your own property.” The penalties are minimal: first violation a warning, second a $200 infraction, third a misdemeanor and fine of $1,000 with no threat of jailtime.

Many have criticized the bill as too soft, asking IWF to make the penalties for public land trespass the same as private land trespass. While we understand the sentiment, folks need to understand this bill is not meant to over-criminalize bad behavior, send people to jail, or bankrupt anybody. The idea is to maintain our access.

The trespass law passed two years ago, which also relaxed posting requirements, has incredibly sever punishments for stepping a foot onto private property, even accidentally (ignorance is not a defense): first violation is a $300 infraction and up to six months in jail, second violation is a $3,000 fine and six months in jail with hunting license suspended for a year, third offense is a $10,000 fine with a year in jail and hunting license suspended for five years. And the best part- if you are sued for trespass and found innocent, it’s up to you to go back to court to prove you deserve your defense fees recovered. We are not interested in mimicking that.

Next steps: stay tuned for your opportunity to show your support for PAPA and public access. We’ll need as many people as possible to get the bill an official introduction so the public can weigh in on the importance of access for Idahoans.

For those asking, here are the House members who voted against access retention: Chairman Marc Gibbs, Vice Chair Terry Gestrin, Mike Moyle, Paul Shepherd, Fred Wood, Judy Boyle, John Vander Woude, Ron Mendive, Clark Kauffman, Megan Blanksma, Jim Addis, Laurie Lickley, Dorothy Moon, Britt Raybould.