Really, no trespassing was enough there.
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Defineatley. The bullet holes gives enough emphasis too.
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Texas changed the laws about roadside herping a few years ago and required herpers to wear orange safety vests when out there doing it. Makes sense, but I was annoyed at first.
Then I started wearing a vest and it is the absolute best thing that the state has ever required!! I no longer have to stop and explain to every passer by what I’m doing, local land owners don’t stop and ask questions suspiciously, and people don’t even stop to say “Do you need help?” I simply get to explore the roadside in peace because they assume I am out there for a “legitimate purpose”! Thanks TX legislators! If I had known it would have that freeing effect, I would have started 20 years ago.
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Same, most people have gotten used to it by now if they’ve known me for a while.
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I started designing digital shirts related to this if anyone would like to see them, one of them says,
"I’M A NATURALIST
I AM JUST
CONNECTING WITH NATURE.
PLEASE STOP PULLING ME OVER,
WHETHER I AM ON MY BIKE, WALKING, OR OTHERWISE." on the front.
Email me if you are interested in seeing them even though they do not have much overall design to them(until I figure out how to add it at least!) and I will try to give you access.
Have a good night, I’ll probably be back on sometime around PDT-8:00am tomorrow.
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To put it another way: if you see wholesale clearcutting of trees, assume that you are not allowed to salvage live understory plants from the cutover areas.
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I’ve seen a similar kind of sign here in New Zealand.
Interesting…what type of property and ownership?
I would ask everyone here to have the same attitude towards security and law enforcement that they would like law enforcement to have towards them; don’t automatically assume the worst motive. Most of the time they’re just trying to do their job, which means they have to investigate anything that looks suspicious to them.
Most of us would also complain if no one enforced the laws that are meant to protect wildlife; like not setting stumps on fire or illegally collecting specimens. The fact that you are being stopped and asked for a permit to collect is evidence that these laws are actually being enforced, and the wildlife is actually being protected.
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You know, I’ve always wanted to visit New Zealand, but when I ask my parents, they say that I’ve been there before.
Apparently I was there when I was two years old?
EDIT: To be exact, I wasn’t even there for a whole day, only long enough for my mom to get my dad a new ticket for the plane back after he lost his original one. That does not count as being there in my opinion!
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Not on a bike, but I have a story…
Last year, a few local towns in my area (Northeast Tennessee) had protests surrounding the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis, like many other parts of the country. Well, obviously there were some other local folks who didn’t necessarily like that, and out of fear of Portland-like situations arising in the area, a white supremacist group threatened the Bristol, VA city police (just across the state line), stating somehow (probably on Facebook or something) that they would attack/infiltrate/etc. the police station if “something wasn’t done” to stop the region’s protestors. I was entirely unaware of this; in fact, I didn’t even know where the police station was.
I was running Breeding Bird Surveys in SWVA, so naturally I stopped at a city park known to have some priority species in the summer. Across the stream, one building had lots of chain-link fence with barbwire and dogs barking. I assumed it was an animal shelter. Well, long story short, it wasn’t. I found some Cliff Swallows nesting on the nearby bridge and began snapping photos, in the direction of the building. Within five minutes, I was surrounded by six police cars, and one officer jumped out of the car and approached me.
Mind you, I was in “field tech” mode; a white guy who hadn’t shaved in several days, was wearing a red clay-stained “Old Time Fiddler’s Convention” T-shirt, with a fairly strong Appalachian accent. I was a stereotypically-accurate representation of the adversary. As they gathered, I was momentarily confused and pretty visibly nervous, but answered their questions about what I was doing and allowed them to check the photos on my camera. Luckily, after I began to explain the natural history of swallow nests, muskrats, and some assorted catbirds, hawks, etc. they were seeing, and why I was taking the pictures, they quickly departed from the inadvertent “nature-nerd-fest.” Afterwards, the Chief of Police himself strolled out of his nearby office, apologized, and explained the situation about the threats, drug smuggling into the holding facility for prisoners there, and other precautions that made them pretty suspicious of me skulking around the backside of the police station.
But it did manage to attract a small army of law-enforcement. In fact, I realized on the drive back that I almost forgot to switch SD cards. I had borrowed my grandad’s camera (mine was having some difficulties), and the SD card was full of pictures of his extensive gun collection, motorcycle, and other vehicles for “insurance purposes.” I almost just kept that SD for the day; including those pictures, which probably would have been incriminating to some extent. Enough for an arrest at least, given the situation, it would have been hard to explain. By the way, the dogs barking were K-9 units.
Moral of this freakishly long and annoying story for the forum: make sure you know where you are, and what’s going on there…
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yes, this. Police in America are very jumpy and quick to jump to conclusions, which does a lot of harm. But please, don’t take your camera out anywhere near a military installation or jail. it makes the guards incredibly and justifiably nervous. speaking as a military vet.
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Good tip.
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Canada is the place to be … never had an issue.
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Honestly, I think that if I went an entire week without anyone outwardly saying, indicating, or just implying that they think I’m suspicious, I would feel like something was missing.
If I went an entire month without it happening, then I would for sure think that something had gone wrong, and the world is coming to an end.
Okay. I just felt like saying that, and it is now out of my system, sooo I can continue working on math. yay?
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also this thread
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/i-would-like-an-inat-hat/1186
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These are required on building sites in NZ. I’ve noticed, though, that the most visible person on any site is the one NOT wearing the high-vis… Noticed by everyone!
Another “must be on official business” free-pass is the clipboard.
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I had awkward interactions before but the worst was at a PA state park where I brought my MV light. I walked down to an area without any people or campsites and set the light up, and within a half hour I had a very unpleasant ranger show up and demand if I had permits. I told him I was just photographing moths for iNaturalist and wasn’t collecting but he didn’t care and told me to shut down the light after an hour. I mean he gave me an hour but I don’t know what I was doing wrong, and not sure why he was so gruff and unpleasant when I was not confrontational. When I asked him if he wanted to see the stuff on the sheet he said “who cares it’s just a light on a sheet” and drove the truck away. They hire these people to work at PA state parks who don’t care about what lives there, or allow people to document what lives in the park?
Meanwhile down at the campsite there were many camp lights and plenty of people making noise and drinking.
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Grazing country on the coast down here north of Christchurch. The sign was on the public right of way through the property. I should have taken a photo of it. It specifically prohibited DoC staff and other government types.
Interesting.