Wild One:
Part of the problem with farms & ranches is you can't avoid fences. As long as you need fences to keep livestock in; somebody with permission will have to open a gate and REMEMBER to close it behind them to enter a pasture and SHOULD leave the same way. But of course there will always be lazy people who won't feel like walking 100 yards or a mile or more to a gate and will climb or cut a fence, or cut through a field of crops to get where they want to fish. Maybe the Utah lawmaker's will force them to put in a few extra gates to make it convenient for the fisherman.
One creek I fish has an electric fence right across it. It is a property I have permission to fish yet the obstacle remains because it is needed to direct the cows to an adjacent pasture on the other side of the creek and to keep them from downstream areas which are not the farmer's property.
The bottom line here is if I was less conscientious or lazy I would possibly consider cutting or climbing the fence rather than walking the mile to get around it and downstream. Of course knowing it's electric is a deterrent too!But I also figure that I am the only guy the farmer lets fish there because somehow I know if more people had access, that fence would be trashed because walking around it is a real PIA.
I guess I just have no faith that good behavior will prevail when there are so many lazy people out there.
Maybe when all of the shopping carts at the market are placed back in the cart corrals instead of two feet away against a curb; maybe when all of the empty beer cans & water bottles end up in the trash not in the bushes; maybe when I no longer see the empty worm containers and hook packages lying on the stream banks; maybe when the discarded tippet spools and strike indicators end up in the angler's pocket for the trip home instead of being "accidentally" left on the bank or dropped in the water; maybe when I hear thank you being said as many times as I say it to show my appreciation...
...maybe then I'll be a believer too.
But until that day; I know there will continue to be destruction of property whether it's legal access or not because some folks just don't care and I will continue to consider it wrong to force a private landowner to endure it just because it's the law.
Access to private property shouldn't be considered an entitlement just because you are a "public"; it's a privilege that should be earned by asking and showing respect for something that doesn't belong to you.
I'm glad I live and fish in a state that still understands that.
BTW - Sears is having a sale on wire cutters!
Good fishin' fellas!
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