I guess the courts will decide the legal side of things in this particular situation. While I'm no fan of restricting access to public land, I do understand private land owners who don't want people driving across their land. I know many ranchers around here that have come to hate deer season the last few years. With the prevalence of atv's/utv's now, it is a nightmare for ranchers. Fences cut, gates left open, water troughs shot, trash everywhere, waterholes and springs beat down and "mudded" through, cows shot, deer shot on their property without permission, trails cut across fields, up ridges and down draws, buildings vandalized, signs stolen or destroyed, etc.
I understand that it is probably only 10% of the people causing 90% of the problems but that doesn't really comfort ranchers, every year it seems like I lose another piece of access because a rancher goes to a no access policy because he is tired of fighting the many problems caused by the few. They feel like their only option is to put their property on lockdown. This Prineville situation is a high profile case and is easy to blame the "spoiled rich kids" but but honestly, I would probably do the same thing in their shoes. It is not an isolated situation, this is happening all over every year because people continue to disrespect the land and people's property. The problem is pretty clear, it's the solution that's hard to see.