Trespassers Beware!

Many times in Michigan we hear of property rights disputes involving where bodies of water and private land meet. Over the years there has been a lot of case law involving riparian rights. This website seems to have a lot of information regarding property rights for land owners adjacent to a body of water www.mwai.org . There is a large section of the rights of property owners and a list of cases regarding this issue.
Being a sportsman, respect of land and property is something that has always been very important to me. As more and more land is developed and purchased privately, it is getting harder to find large property for enjoying outdoor sports. Michigan has done a great job in developing its parks, and heading to the areas in the more rural parts of Ingham, Eaton, and Clinton Counties, there are tracts of State land available for use by Residents. I am bringing up land rights issues due to an incident that happened on our property behind our office on November 11, 2007. A gentleman was given permission to hunt the property with a bow, and harvested a 10 point buck. The animal ran onto property owned by a utility company. A neighbor adjacent to the utility company’s property confronted the hunter stating that he had illegally taken the animal and removed the head of the deer and took it. The neighbor had stated that he leased the property from Consumers Power. Here is the link to the article posted at WILX TV
www.wilx.com/home/headlines/11227326.html . This seems highly unlikely since several people have pointed out that Consumers Energy does not lease there property. So whose deer was it? According to the “Tagging Big Game and Furbearers” Section of the Michigan Department of Natural Resource’s Hunting and Trapping Guide. “It is unlawful to tag and animal you did not legally kill.” So even if the Neighbor did tag the head before he took it, he would still be in violation. Leaving the game laws out of, it brings up questions of property rights. If the deer had fallen on Mr. Wisniewski’s (AKA The Neighbors) property and he would not allow the hunter to retrieve it, the animal would become the State’s property. This is due to trespassing laws of Michigan. “MCLA 750.552 is the general state statute for trespass. This statute prevents anyone from trespassing upon the premises of another after having been forbidden to do so.” According to Attorney Clifford H. Bloom in an article called Trespass! Posted on the mwai.org website above, since the hunter would have been prevented from entering the premise, and the land owner could not tag the animal, an officer would have to confiscate it.
Now the question becomes since the property was not posted as private, when the hunter went on the property to retrieve his animal, was he in violation of any laws. He had never been forbidden to enter the property either by signs on the property or by any individual. If I am reading how the statute is being interpreted by Mr. Bloom, it would seem that he had every right to enter the property, especially since he thought he was still on the property he had been given permission to hunt. He had no intention of trespassing on someone else’s property. The DNR is currently involved now, and it will be interesting to see what the outcome of this incident is going to be. If you have any comments or know more about the laws involved, please leave me your comment.