Recycle Old Worn Out Tires…Don’t Display Them!!

Today I was driving some back country roads when I looked into a ditch and seen an absolutely hideous site. Oh sure, I’ve seen this same pathetic image countless times before…but today for some reason it just struck a nerve with me. I’m talking about those landowners who find it necessary to prop an old tire on a fence post and then use some cheap white paint to compose the words “NO HUNTING” or “NO TRESPASSING” on them.

Now understand that I am not taking issue with the fact the particular landowner does not want hunters or other uninvited guests on their land. Quite the contrary, I’m more repulsed by a landowner who chooses to display that message to me in this eye-sore manner. It’s ugly…it’s ineffective…and in Minnesota (as it probably is in many other states) it just so happens to be unenforceable as a sign to control land access by hunters, fishermen and other trespassers.

Minn. Stat. ‘ 97B.001, Subd. 4, Section B reads, in part:

(b) The owner, occupant, or lessee of private land, or an authorized manager of public land may prohibit outdoor recreation on the land by posting signs once each year that:

(1) state "no trespassing" or similar terms;

(2) display letters at least two inches high;

(3) either:

(i) are signed by the owner, occupant, lessee, or authorized manager; or

(ii) include the legible name and telephone number of the owner, occupant, lessee, or authorized manager;….

Okay, now I didn’t stop my truck and walk down into the ditch…but I can almost assure you there was no additional information on any tire I’ve ever seen bearing either a signature or contact information for who placed the tire with the purpose of fulfilling this requirement. Yet you drive throughout the countryside and it seems some landowners find it necessary to turn the old Goodyear’s into a placard telling me, in so many words, to go away.

I guess it’s just a growing pet peeve of mine to see debris of any kind scattered throughout the ditches. It distracts from the otherwise pristine beauty of the landscape. Even if I can’t hunt a nice slough because access is restricted, that landowner can’t stop me from admiring it when I drive by. So why wreck the view? It’s time landowners (of which I happen to be one of them) take more pride in their property boundaries and find a new way to announce any access restrictions. If I threw an old tire into the ditch from my truck I would face a hefty fine because I would be littering. If a landowner, on the other hand, litters those same ditches the visual effect is much the same but the landowner gets away with it because it’s on their property. Doesn’t make the scenery look any better as far as I’m concerned.

The point I’m trying to make is old tires have many positive recycling uses…but marking trespass boundaries should not be one of them. There are much better ways for landowners to legally and more aesthetically announce their desires to keep strangers off the premises. It irks me about the same as those landowners who get paid to park an old semi-trailer on their property ala a poor man’s billboard (likely trying to get around some outdoor advertising ordinance, I suppose). Either way it’s viewed as trash and the message it ultimately sends to me is here is one landowner who is either lazy or bent on skirting the system by not following the law.

2006 Jim Braaten. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Prior Permission.