# tresspassing laws in utah?



## walkalot (Oct 11, 2011)

can someone interpret this for me? the way i read this, is that if the land is NOT cultivated OR properly posted, i can hunt on it....now that seems ass backwards but am i reading this correctly?

the reason i ask is because i see alot of people hunting areas my maps show to be private, say for example the wasatch front mountain dell area...my map shows the majorty of this being private with a few spots of public national forest land. i have a couple areas like this on my map that i want to hunt but are not posted and i see people there all the time, is my map wrong? (i doubt it, its updated at least once a year) or is it not posted therefore legal to hunt? or are that many people just ignorant and dont know its private?....but if that were the case i would think the land owners would stop it.

so what's the deal? if need be i can take a screenshot of my map to show an example of what im talking about

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Trespassing
Utah Code §§ 23-20-14 and 23-20-3.5
While taking wildlife or engaging in wildliferelated activities, you may not do any of the 
following activities: 

•	Enter upon privately owned land that is cultivated or properly posted without the 
permission of the owner or the person in charge of the land
•	Refuse to immediately leave the private land if requested to do so by the owner or person in charge 
•	Obstruct any entrance or exit to private property

“Cultivated land” is land that is readily identifiable as land whose soil is loosened or broken up for the raising of crops, land used for the raising of crops, or a pasture that is artificially irrigated. “Permission” means written authorization from the owner or person in charge to enter upon private land that is cultivated or properly 
posted. Permission must include all of the following details: 

•	The signature of the owner or person in charge 
•	The name of the person being given permission 
•	The appropriate dates 
•	A general description of the land 

“Properly posted” means that “No Trespassing” signs—or a minimum of 100 square inches of bright yellow, bright orange or fluorescent paint—are displayed at all corners, on fishing 
streams crossing property lines, and on roads, gates and rights-of-way entering the land. If metal fence posts are used, the entire exterior side must be painted.You may not post private property you do not own or legally control or land that is open to the public as provided by Utah Code § 23-21-4. In addition, it is unlawful to take protected wildlife 
or its parts while trespassing in violation of Utah 
Code § 23-20-14. 

You are guilty of a class B misdemeanor if you violate any provision described in this section. Your license, tag or permit privileges may also be suspended.


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## 90redryder (Oct 10, 2011)

Pretty sure its gotta be cultivated or posted every so many yards. Otherwise most people will hunt anything without a fence blocking them out or signs to stop them.


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## walkalot (Oct 11, 2011)

anyone else care to weigh in on this?....


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## REPETER (Oct 3, 2007)

You can hunt uncultivated, unposted private property. However, if the owner asks you to leave, you must immediately leave. Basically, I'd apologize and ask if there was any way I could go about getting permission for future hunts. Many landowners are pretty knowledgable and will post their property or at least be reasonable if people are on it. Oh...and don't obstruct then entrances


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## Finnegan (Sep 7, 2007)

walkalot said:


> the reason i ask is because i see alot of people hunting areas my maps show to be private, say for example the wasatch front mountain dell area...my map shows the majorty of this being private with a few spots of public national forest land. i have a couple areas like this on my map that i want to hunt but are not posted and i see people there all the time, is my map wrong?


Maybe your map isn't detailed enough. You're right, there are a couple parcels of USFS land in that area, but the remaining land isn't all private. The majority of it belongs to Salt Lake County and is legal to hunt except for the posted area from the Little Dell dam down to the Mountain Dell dam, and that's clearly posted.


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## truemule (Sep 12, 2007)

You are basically right. The advice of the others is correct also. IF asked to leave, Leave. Besides the rule that the DWR posts you should be familiar with the utah code for tresspassing.

Found here http://le.utah.gov/~code/TITLE76/htm/76_06_020600.htm


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## walkalot (Oct 11, 2011)

Finnegan said:


> walkalot said:
> 
> 
> > the reason i ask is because i see alot of people hunting areas my maps show to be private, say for example the wasatch front mountain dell area...my map shows the majorty of this being private with a few spots of public national forest land. i have a couple areas like this on my map that i want to hunt but are not posted and i see people there all the time, is my map wrong?
> ...


my map is extremely detailed, but if it's owned by salt lake county i would think it would show up on my map as state land....weird. do you have a map that you recommend? i use the one i purchased for my computer/gps from https://www.huntinggpsmaps.com/Web_Store/MapStore.php and appears to be quite accurate, but i dont understand why it would show that still as private.....it shows the same thing on mytopo.com maps

thanks for the info guys, helps alot there were some areas i wanted to hunt i have been staying away from that i know aren't posted, and apparently might be owned by salt lake county


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## hemionus (Aug 23, 2009)

County property is not state property and will always show up as private.


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## walkalot (Oct 11, 2011)

hemionus said:


> County property is not state property and will always show up as private.


ahh, good to know....wish when i bought the map pack they had the other version available that lists property owner names, but they dont


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## shiras (Aug 21, 2019)

Finnegan said:


> Maybe your map isn't detailed enough. You're right, there are a couple parcels of USFS land in that area, but the remaining land isn't all private. The majority of it belongs to Salt Lake County and is legal to hunt except for the posted area from the Little Dell dam down to the Mountain Dell dam, and that's clearly posted.


Also, don't forget the rifle hunting restrictions:

https://i.imgur.com/1TrEjS9.jpg

http://www.emigrationcanyon.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Summer2010.pdf


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

walkalot said:


> my map is extremely detailed, but if it's owned by salt lake county i would think it would show up on my map as state land....weird.


Your map must not be that detailed, I overlayed the private land layer in Gaia maps and looked around the Mountain Dell Res area. Gaia shows a bunch of land owned by the Salt Lake City Corp.


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## RandomElk16 (Sep 17, 2013)

No one looks at dates anymore.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

Lol. There's always those days when someone goes searching through the archives and responding to 8 year old threads.....


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

Really, darn. You would have thought I would have caught that as there are about 5 other old threads I looked at this morning and caught that there older then the hills.

It appears to be all Shiras's fault, dang newbie bringing up old threads confusing the rest of us.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Ya can't blame a person for joining and jumping right into some post even if they are quite old. That is the nature of internet forums. 

It is better than joining, waiting a month, and then asking where are all the 200" bucks and 400" bulls located at? In his first post.


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

Critter said:


> It is better than joining, waiting a month, and then asking where are all the 200" bucks and 400" bulls located at? In his first post.


That is debatable. But we welcome them all with open arms anyway!


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## shiras (Aug 21, 2019)

Kwalk3 said:


> Lol. There's always those days when someone goes searching through the archives and responding to 8 year old threads.....


Haha yeah, my fault, sorry about that. See also: https://utahwildlife.net/forum/12-b...-deer-around-rock-cliff-area.html#post2131371


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

shiras said:


> Haha yeah, my fault, sorry about that. See also: https://utahwildlife.net/forum/12-b...-deer-around-rock-cliff-area.html#post2131371


Haha. No worries. Glad to have someone looking to contribute to the discussion, even if the discussion is old! Welcome!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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