IOW official made misinformed statement

Published 1:18 pm Saturday, September 22, 2012

To the Editor:

In a Sept. 9 article titled “Hunting Uncertain for 2,300 acres in IOW,” the Isle of Wight County spokesman Don Robertson made the statement that allowing hunting on the property had the “potential for liability issues.”

Nothing could be further from the truth

He obviously is not well informed on Virginia State Code 29.1-509 that protects all landowners who allow persons to use their property for almost any type of recreational use, including hunting, as long as they do not charge any type of fee, from almost every type of civil claim.

An uninformed statement of this type can give landowners the impression that allowing hunters to hunt on their property exposes them to civil liability when in almost all cases it does not.

The Virginia Legislature wisely enacted this law many years ago to encourage landowners to allow people to use their property for recreational purposes.

Volpe Boykin
Carrsville