 purple blaze (photo by jhy) |
by jhy
More than a few times in my hiking the North Country Trail in various states I've come across purple blazes along the trail, most often adjacent to a road. I was informed that these marked private property.
In truth, 20 states have "purple paint laws." The blazes mean a variety of nuances of "No Trespassing."
The following states recognize purple painted stripes (blazes) on trees: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia (uses purple or aluminum), West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Several states designate orange with a similar meaning including Arizona, Idaho, and Montana. Utah property owners can use orange or yellow.
In Maryland bright blue is used, and Nebraska recognizes blue or red.
Missouri has the strictest laws, considering the purple blazes the equivalent of "No Trespassing" signs with full legal penalties for those who cross. Sometimes, the purple only means 'No Hunting, Fishing, or Trapping." This varies by state.
My experience in general has been that this may be a sensible idea, but the execution by landowners is usually poor. The blazes are supposed to be a full 8" long and between 3-5 feet off the ground, a little lower than trail blazes. Illinois suggests a maximum distance between blazes of 36 feet. I've seen edges of land along roads (presumably where owners were not happy to have a national trail passing by their property) that were marked with huge sloppy blobs of purple paint on every tree.
That said, if this were done with discretion and moderately neatly, it's very helpful to hikers to know when they are close to private property when passing through public land. It's usually not possible to know intuitively where property lines are, and if dispersed camping is allowed in an area, your tent site is supposed to be 200 feet off the trail. But will that 200 feet take you out of a state forest and into someone's woodlot? Information is good. I prefer a few purple blazes to plastic signs nailed up every 20 feet.
It would be good if a single color were universally adopted. Trails are seldom blazed with purple, but red, blue, yellow, and orange are all commonly used on trails of various lengths.
See an article on the topic in USA Today
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1 comment:
My understanding is that purple blazes began along rivers for kayak, canoe and boats to not trespass.
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