Forgive me if someone has already discussed this. I've been fading
in and out of Tweeters for the last several days and might have
missed it. Washington, as do probably all western states, has a
recreational use statute. It limits personal injury liability for
landowners who allow the public to engage in recreational activities
on their land. Even some of the eastern states now have these
statutes. The purpose is to encourage private landowners to allow
recreational activity such as fishing, birding, hunting, and hiking.
I suspect that lots of landowners are in fear of an injury resulting
in a lawsuit and they might not know about our state's statute.
There is always the possibility of having a discussion about access
with a private landowner who expresses this concern. It never hurts
to share information with them about our recreational use statute if
it seems appropriate. Of course, the law is not a substitute for our
starting with a courteous request for access. Here is the statute in
its entirety from the Revised Code of Washington for any of you who
might wish to keep a copy in your birding vehicle or in your hip pocket:

? 4.24.210. Liability of owners or others in possession of land and
water areas for injuries to recreation users -- Limitation


(1) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (3) or (4) of this
section, any public or private landowners or others in lawful
possession and control of any lands whether designated resource,
rural, or urban, or water areas or channels and lands adjacent to
such areas or channels, who allow members of the public to use them
for the purposes of outdoor recreation, which term includes, but is
not limited to, the cutting, gathering, and removing of firewood by
private persons for their personal use without purchasing the
firewood from the landowner, hunting, fishing, camping, picnicking,
swimming, hiking, bicycling, skateboarding or other nonmotorized
wheel-based activities, hanggliding, paragliding, rock climbing, the
riding of horses or other animals, clam digging, pleasure driving of
off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, and other vehicles, boating, nature
study, winter or water sports, viewing or enjoying historical,
archaeological, scenic, or scientific sites, without charging a fee
of any kind therefor, shall not be liable for unintentional injuries
to such users.

(2) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (3) or (4) of this
section, any public or private landowner or others in lawful
possession and control of any lands whether rural or urban, or water
areas or channels and lands adjacent to such areas or channels, who
offer or allow such land to be used for purposes of a fish or
wildlife cooperative project, or allow access to such land for
cleanup of litter or other solid waste, shall not be liable for
unintentional injuries to any volunteer group or to any other users.

(3) Any public or private landowner, or others in lawful possession
and control of the land, may charge an administrative fee of up to
twenty-five dollars for the cutting, gathering, and removing of
firewood from the land.

(4) Nothing in this section shall prevent the liability of a
landowner or others in lawful possession and control for injuries
sustained to users by reason of a known dangerous artificial latent
condition for which warning signs have not been conspicuously posted.
A fixed anchor used in rock climbing and put in place by someone
other than a landowner is not a known dangerous artificial latent
condition and a landowner under subsection (1) of this section shall
not be liable for unintentional injuries resulting from the condition
or use of such an anchor. Nothing in RCW 4.24.200 and this section
limits or expands in any way the doctrine of attractive nuisance.
Usage by members of the public, volunteer groups, or other users is
permissive and does not support any claim of adverse possession.

(5) For purposes of this section, the following are not fees:

(a) A license or permit issued for statewide use under authority
of chapter 79A.05 RCW or Title 77 RCW; and

(b) A daily charge not to exceed twenty dollars per person, per
day, for access to a publicly owned ORV sports park, as defined in
RCW 46.09.020, or other public facility accessed by a highway,
street, or nonhighway road for the purposes of off-road vehicle use.

Carol Riddell
Edmonds



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20070630/3740278a/attachment.htm