TUNKHANNOCK, Pa. -- Pennsylvanians can trade their posted signs for purple paint. It's a new, legal way to warn hunters and other passers-by where your land begins.
"I don't like to post,but I have to," said Doug Gay of Gay's True Value Hardware. "If someone sues on your property whose fault is it? It is yours, mine, theirs?"
The purple markings are another option for landowners who feel posted signs, which are a few dollars each, are too pricey or don't last long enough.
"It wouldn't be torn down. If you sprayed this your squirrels, your birds and porcupines whatever aren't gonna pull it down," Roger Boston of Ace Hardware said.
Markings must be at least eight inches long and an inch wide, and they should be placed between three and five feet off the ground. There should be no more than 100 feet in between purple markings along a property line.
When marking their property, not just any old shade of purple will do. In order to give potential trespassers a fair and legal warning, people need to use commercially available no hunting paint or tape.
Governor Tom Wolf signed off on the law several months ago, and it is now in effect.
Boston said hopefully word will spread before the fall when they typically get a surge of people shopping for supplies to mark their land.
"I think it needs to be brought to their attention that this is something new that we're doing and that it is legal," Boston explained. "Just as legal as a posted sign to have only this paint on the tree because it's gonna be new and people aren't gonna pay too much attention."
The law does not apply in Philadelphia nor Allegheny counties.