Definition
Posted waters are bodies of water — whether flowing streams, ponds, or other water features — located on enclosed or cultivated private land, which the landowner or occupant has reserved for exclusive use by publicly posting notices pursuant to applicable statute. The posting of required notices prohibits third parties from shooting, trapping, or fishing on those waters and subjects violators to statutory penalties. The concept is a creature of specific state statutory schemes, most prominently Vermont's, and represents a mechanism by which private landowners assert and enforce exclusive recreational use rights over water resources situated on their property.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No established entry. "Posted" in ordinary usage means formally announced or displayed in a public place; "posted land" colloquially describes property marked with no-trespassing signs.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Post" as a verb includes to affix in a public place for notice, and "posted" describes land or property so marked.
Editorial note: The ordinary meaning of "posted" captures only the physical act of affixing a notice. The legal meaning of "posted waters" is more specific: it is a term of art describing a statutory procedure that, when completed, transforms the landowner's exclusive use rights into an enforceable legal regime with defined penalties. The sign alone does not create the legal status; compliance with the statutory form and placement requirements does.
Common Confusion
Posted waters should not be confused with the broader category of private waters or with navigable waters. Private waters are those to which a riparian owner holds exclusive rights by virtue of ownership, regardless of any posting. Navigable waters, by contrast, are generally subject to public use rights that cannot be extinguished by posting notices. Posted waters occupy a distinct middle category: waters that may otherwise be accessible or ambiguously situated on private land, but which the owner has formalized as off-limits through statutory procedure. A landowner's failure to comply with the precise statutory requirements for posting typically means the waters do not carry the legal status of "posted waters" even if signs are physically present.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is highly jurisdiction-specific and historically bounded. Researchers encountering it in nineteenth- or early twentieth-century sources should treat it as a Vermont statutory term unless context clearly indicates otherwise. The Black's 2nd edition definition is essentially a Vermont-law gloss, and the single supporting citation — State v. Theriault — is a Vermont Supreme Court case from 1898. Researchers working on hunting, fishing, or trespass questions in other jurisdictions should not assume an equivalent statutory framework exists without independent verification.
The term surfaces most often in three research contexts: (1) criminal or quasi-criminal prosecutions for unlicensed fishing or hunting on private land; (2) property disputes over riparian and water use rights; and (3) historical analysis of the evolution of public access doctrines in natural resources law. In the latter context, posted waters statutes reflect a late nineteenth-century legislative pattern in which states attempted to reconcile common-law public fishing rights with the practical expectations of rural landowners.
Researchers using historical digests or reporters should be alert to the fact that "posted" as applied to land and water was a term used somewhat loosely in popular and legal writing of the era, and not every reference to "posted" property involves the formal statutory procedure that gives rise to the specific legal status. Cross-referencing the underlying Vermont statute and its amendments will be necessary for any serious historical work.
The term has largely fallen out of modern legal usage as a standalone dictionary entry, having been absorbed into state fish and wildlife regulatory codes and trespass statutes. Modern equivalents appear under headings such as "no-trespass orders," "hunting and fishing restrictions," or specific statutory definitions within state natural resources codes.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) provides the only entry in the Law Mind corpus for this term. The definition is precise but narrow — it is explicitly keyed to Vermont law and the Vermont statutory procedure, with no suggestion that the term carried broader interstate currency. The supporting citation to State v. Theriault (70 Vt. 617, 41 Atl. 1030) is a real and instructive case. The entry is notable for what it does not address: it takes no position on the underlying question of whether posting could be effective against the public as to navigable waters, a point that was and remains legally contested.
No other historical dictionaries in the Law Mind shelf address this term, which itself signals its limited doctrinal footprint outside Vermont's specific statutory context. The absence of entries in later editions of Black's or in competing historical dictionaries suggests the term did not achieve widespread adoption as a general legal term of art.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is primarily a Vermont statutory concept. Other states enacted comparable "posting" or "no-hunting" statutory frameworks, but the specific term "posted waters" and the legal incidents attached to it derive from Vermont's particular legislative history. Researchers working outside Vermont should consult state-specific fish and wildlife statutes rather than assuming this definition applies.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
environmental_17: Navigable Waters, Waters of the United States, and Jurisdiction (The Law Mind Environmental & Energy Law Encyclopedia) — relevant for understanding the boundary between public navigable waters and private water resources on which posting could operate.