The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Bruce,


Property has to be posted with signs for any kind of legal action to be brought against you but that won't necessarily keep a cop from arresting you if he's called. There has to be so many signs per mile(I think 3) and the signs have to be a certain size as well. If you damage the property or anything on it(like cutting a hole in the fence)then you can be arrested for trespassing even if the place isn't posted. There's a new law on the books about trespassing on agricultural land that took effect a few years back. If cattle are present on the land and those cattle are used for human consumption and the place is posted then the penalty goes up considerably. This may go for all types of agricultural lands, I can't remember. It has to do with possible biological terrorist attacks and what not. Whenever I push the limits of property rights I usually worry a lot more about the land owner then the cops. Trespass laws aren't of very much use when some guy is shooting a shotgun full of rock salt into your ass. Also, I wouldn't put a lot of stock into the navigable river laws folks like to talk up. A river has to be declared navigable by a judge before it is. It's not automatic like most folks seem to imply. The navigable rivers act is just a possible tool to us if one was to try and gain access to a river through the courts.