The Purple Paint Law

Many states – West Virginia and Pennsylvania have implemented purple paint laws that allow landowners to paint trees purple to indicate private property, replacing the Posted No Trespassing signs which used to require that the property owner be listed to ask permission to access or hunt or contact them about other concerns about their land.

The idea is that people can nowadays find landowners either by the county websites with their interactive GIS browsers, via their ArcGIS REST Services or various apps such as OxHunt. No need to list the landowner on the sign – traditionally posted signs were pretty expensive to post in a legal number, a few bucks a sign which can really add up if you are posting more than a few acres. Purple paint in contrast is cheap.

The DEC has been marking their property borders with yellow blazes for some time now to supplement their state land signs. Paint means you can cover a lot more area for cheap. Does purple paint mean that more land owned by private owners will be closed off from public use or does it just reinforce existing posted signs?

Honestly I think the solution should be a hybrid model. Maybe their should be some relaxation on the distance of posted signs with the use of purple paint but I think traditional posted signs with landowner contact information posted at major access points like corner posts, driveways, or road borders. Online databases are good but no trespassing signs are more effective and I think landowner information should be listed near the entrances.