This is the second of two parts on a recent court decision over new trespass laws in Wyoming. Check out part 1.

The groups that sued over Wyoming’s new laws prohibiting people from trespassing on private lands argue that lawmakers were simply trying to punish people trying to expose violations to livestock, wildlife, land, water or air.

They charge that the lawmakers are singling out—and discriminating against—those U.S. citizens who are trying to collect data that would shed light on potential violations, whether the laws were broken by landowners themselves or others, such as those involved in oil and gas extraction.

PRIVATE LANDS: Access to private land by groups seeking to "monitor" ranching activities is a hot issue in the West.

The groups claim that instead of giving citizens a dual role of environmental watchdog and First Amendment whistleblower, the Wyoming lawmakers instead granted landowners the power to authorize or prohibit who can gather information about land and land use for communication to the public or government.

U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl, who dismissed the lawsuit in July, agreed that some comments during Wyoming legislative discussions “expressed frustrations or outright dislike for environmental groups or other particular interest groups or viewpoints.”

But he wrote that such comments cannot be said to taint the motivations of all legislators.

Though the new laws specifically target those trespassing across private lands to gather information on private or public lands, Wyoming previously passed laws to help curb the ongoing problem of people trespassing to hunt, fish or trap.

“This is not the first time Wyoming has enacted a statute to prevent a particular problematic sort of trespass,” Skavdahl wrote.

Brett Moline, director of public and government affairs for Wyoming Farm Bureau, praised the ruling, saying that it strengthens private property rights in the state by shifting the burden of trespass notification from the landowner to the person trespassing to collect data.

“The ruling emphasizes that you can’t break the law, that you can’t trespass, to get freedom of speech,” Moline says. “This is much like the hunting and fishing statutes. That if you are going to be hunting and fishing, you have to know where you are at.”

Trespass case spurs legislation

Wyoming’s new laws that address trespassing on private lands to collect data were spurred by an ongoing court case involving 15 landowners in western Wyoming and Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project.

The landowners filed suit against WWP in 2014, claiming that its Wyoming director, Jonathan Ratner, and others with the environmental group trespassed onto their lands to collect water quality samples and range monitoring data.

The landowners, including several that own large ranches in western Wyoming, claim that people don’t have a right to enter private lands without permission, while WWP calls the case a “slappsuit”— a strategic lawsuit against public participation.

The civil lawsuit filed by the landowners against WWP is moving slowly through state district court in Lander, Wyo.

A court spokesperson in late July said motions were still being filed and that the case was expected to continue for months.

Data collection access form available

In response to trespass legislation approved by the Wyoming Legislature, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association developed a landowner permission form that should be suitable for most uses.

Many state and federal agencies, universities and other public entities, including the University of Wyoming, have developed landowner permission forms suited to their individual use, according to the WSGA.

However, such forms aren’t readily available to general public, and the “generic” form available on the WSGA website should help landowners and people seeking access to private lands for the purpose of data collection.

The form is available at wysga.org/landownerdatacollection.aspx