What to Do If You Find Purple Paint on Posts, Trees While Hunting

There are only a handful of colors that show particularly well in the outdoors. Blaze orange obviously comes to mind first, but purple also shows itself well in a natural setting. In fact, it’s also one of the few colors colorblind people can easily identify, making it an optimal choice for marking important landmarks. This is especially important in the woods where everything sort of blends together, as you don’t want people to miss “no hunting” or “no trespassing” indicators on private land.

Back in 1989, Arkansas instituted the “purple paint rule” as a way for private property owners to effectively and efficiently post their land. By 1997, Texas adopted the rule as well.

In the video from KEAN 105.1, Rudy Fernandez, aka the “One-Armed Outdoorsman,” talks about how the purple paint system started and just how it works.

Originally landowners were required to have a “no trespassing” or other sign posted to explain the purple paint, but only one year later that rule was rescinded. The new law states that the purple paint marks must be located in vertical lines a minimum of 8 inches long and at least 1 inch wide.

The marked posts or even trees must have clearly visible paint and that paint must be placed 3-5 feet from the ground. Other states with purple paint rules to indicate property lines include Kansas, Arizona, Montana, Arkansas, Idaho, Florida, Maine, North Carolina, Missouri, and Illinois. Pennsylvania also recently adopted the use of purple paint markings to indicate no trespassing in 2020.

No matter what state you’re in, “posted” and other no-trespassing signs can be a headache for landowners to constantly replace. The purple paint law makes things a little easier, both from a maintenance standpoint, and on your wallet since you are not constantly replacing worn and broken signage.

Now we just need more states to get in on the purple markings rule. It seems like it would make criminal trespass and other law violations a lot easier for law enforcement to police. The only thing left to be done is to share the meaning of the rule so everyone knows!