WOODS & WATERS
Do you know what
A PURPLE BLAZE MEANS?
IN THE MAINE WOODS, PURPLE MEANS PRIVATE BY BOB DUCHESNE
IT MAY BE the best law you have never heard of. Eleven years ago, the Maine legislature passed An Act To Protect Owners of Private Property against Trespass. The law placed new requirements on hunters to get written landowner permission when hunting with dogs and when night-hunting coyotes on private land. It required hunting dogs to be outfitted with radio collars, so that they could be retrieved more quickly when straying onto private land. And it made purple paint official. Using purple paint, landowners can declare No Trespassing around their property boundaries. Arkansas was the first state to adopt a purple paint law 33 years ago. It is now the law in 16 states, though Maine is the only New England state to have enacted it so far. Each state has its own spin on the statute. Purple in Texas bans all trespass. In North Carolina, purple means no hunting or fishing. Pennsylvania allows an exception for retrieving hunting dogs. In Maine, the paint requirements are specific. The law reads: “Conspicuous purple paint marks may be placed on trees, posts or stones on the restricted property as long as the marks are vertical lines at least one inch in width and at least 8 inches in length placed so that the bottoms of the marks are not less than 3 feet from the ground or more than 5 feet from the ground at locations that are readily visible to any person approaching the property and no more than 100 feet apart.” Purple paint has advantages. A single can of spray paint is far cheaper than the pile of signs it takes to mark a large boundary. Signs are typically made of metal, which can rust, or cardboard,
THERE’S NOT A LOT OF PURPLE AROUND THE STATE YET. RESPONSIBLE RECREATION ON PRIVATE LAND CAN KEEP IT THAT WAY.
