Guilty till proven innocent eh. His buddy is probably in the bushes having a crap or he might JUST LIKE YOU have walked along 3 mins ahead of you and found 10 geese that fell off a tailgate and be standing there looking at them JUST LIKE YOU. Or he might be hunting on a nuisance permit or he might be hunting on a some kind of first nations permit or he might be photographing a two day possession limit of well gutted and chilled birds. Or he might be carrying birds that were legally gifted to him (and be in possession of all appropriate lisc #s docs) Or he might be a federal bilogist with all the paper work in order.........
You like to read into all the scenarios, and argue "hey this COULD be the case" which is true, so I should turn a blind eye...
You missed a few...maybe the guy was an arborist, and he was pruning the tree but forgot a regular ladder...., maybe he was a sculptor and this is some form of artwork..., maybe the ladder stand was left there 25 years ago (it's aluminum and didn't rust away) and the tree has simply grown up and lifted the ladder stand into an upright position...
As I said in my first post, it's possible the other landowner gave permission and that the property line needs better marking. YOU KEEP MISSING THAT PART as you did in my original posting.
As for "guilty until proven innocent", no, it's called
probable cause. It's been a fact of life
since...The Constitution was written. It means that what is observed leads to a logical conclusion...which might, when more facts come to light, not be the correct answer. As I said, with my scenario, a guy standing over a pile of geese that number over the limit. That's all that's observed, so the guy is in trouble. In your example, if he points to the bushes and there is a guy in there taking a crap...OK, or the guy has a permit for crop damage by waterfowl, whatever, then the guy is out of trouble...., but not until then. Happens all the time. Officers get a call for a trespasser in orange [really helpful description] on a farmer's property. Officer stops me, because I'm in orange and on that property. So I'm in trouble. I show him my written permission, ID, and hunting license...., I'm out of trouble, it happens that fast, and he ask me about having seen any other folks on the land, and moves on to look for the guy who was the source of the complaint.
Now, you're about to say, "The officer was invited onto the property to check you out, but in your case you weren't." Well, news flash, there isn't a magical, mystical, impenetrable, visibility blocking wall simply because of a property line, which is what you seem it imply as I must be "snooping" to have any reaction to
seeing that stand. My reaction wasn't to the stand...but to the totality of the circumstances as observed.
If I was walking a property line while hunting with permission, and observed several pot plants growing on the other side of the fence, I'd ask the opposite land owner about it...., possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor [as is poaching], and since I didn't see anybody tending those plants, the owner is merely possessing the plants...until the owner says, "Nope, no idea about them". Now you'd say...
you don't know if somebody dropped some seeds there by accident while crossing the fence..., you don't know if the owner has glaucoma and has permission to grow his pot..., you don't know if he's a research scientist with permission for marijuana cultivation, and has treated the plants with a chemical so they can't be consumed..., you don't know if some birds ate the marijuana seeds and crapped them out there and the plants just grew... ad infinitum. Which is correct, but..., doesn't stop me (nor should it) from asking the question.... which is the root of your objection.
Again, bait on the ground on one side of the property line, ladder stand posted just on the other side of said line, facing bait, plus a salt block dropped deeper on same property as the bait.
With only those facts, conclusion = subject is using ladder stand to hunt, and is intending on shooting across property line when doing so.
Mitigating circumstances....location of ladder stand is only illegal if opposite landowner did not give permission..., and boundary line may be difficult to identify from the ladder side of the property line. MY SOLUTION, as stated in the beginning of this thread,
first, make sure the stand is there without permission...., if it present with permission....
end of situation...no harm no foul..., But, improve boundary markings in any case as opposite land user(s) may not know exactly where boundary line is positioned.
And you seem to have a problem with the above paragraph.
LD
