It’s called a prescriptive easement and it exists in the entire US, as we based our legal system on the UK. Might be called by different names, though. There are different types of easements. A prescriptive easement is only one type of easement. There are others one type allows a landlocked owner an easement to reach the roadway. Some easements are granted, others purchased. There are easements for views, utilities, some are implied, and there are easements for light (the sun)
But the laws of trespass and easements are a bit different from state to state, so the answers can be found within the individual state code and case law.
In the case of certain types of trespass, exceptions exist for certain activities and again some of that varies from state to state depending up on what type of activity.
Your state code also specifies how property is to be posted, or their may be no requirement for posting. That also makes it very confusing.
Even if you post the land, it doesn’t mean you can’t permit someone to hunt on it. It just means people without your permission cannot enter and use your land. That type of permission does NOT create an easement.
In states with recreational use statutes, if you do NOT charge people to use your land you are protected from liability if that person becomes injured. If you charge someone money - you are liable if that person becomes injured, even if it is through no fault of your own.
In states that permit a very narrow exception to retrieve trash, game or a dog or child, the landowner is likewise fully protected from liability, and and the statutes protect the landowner further by ensuring the landowner can go after the individual if any property is damaged.
f you let someone hunt on your land, in my state there is a form you can give the hunter (or hiker, angler, ATV/horseback rider) that gives him permission to be on your land. It’s not obligatory but if the police or CPO are called, it can help avoid any misunderstanding.
If folks have really specific questions about MFHA policy - they’ll have to call the MFHA. No one is hiding anything, there is no secret conclave or cabal, conspiracy, men in black or black helicopters.
They’re just clubs that have permission to hunt on large parcels of private and public land, and they do so legally, ethically and responsibly. There’s no more to it than that.
ETA - trail riding or hunting does not create a prescriptive easement. A landowner can create a formal easement granting that right - but simply trail riding on land for 20 years does not create an easement, and no one has the right to continue using that land without the new landowners permission.
One thing that might happen to any innocent person is not knowing that the land has been sold. So, let’s say Farmer Bob has let his neighbors ride on his land for 50 years. Farmer Bob decides to shave off part of the farm, sells it to a newcomer, who builds a McMansion. Farmer Bob doesn’t tell anyone because it’s no one’s business. Neighbors don’t know, because the newcomer doesn’t mix with the local. Land isn’t posted.
Months later some folks decide to go on a nice trail ride and get arrested for trespassing on the urban refugees land. Usually these things are just smoothed over easily - the riders apologize, the landowner explains that he now owns the land and doesn’t want other people on it. It’s sad - but that’s the way of things.
But if you get a landowner who is a real jerk, the type to scream, threaten, chase people with a weapon or blunt object, and who insists the cops arrest the person… well then you got trouble. Especially if the trail riders don’t understand how easements work and honestly believe it’s ok for them to be there, or who are truly innocent but the landowner has “issues”.
