Hunters shouldn't automatically be considered unwelcome on fenced land, the North Dakota Senate decided in rejecting a bill that would have dramatically restricted where hunters could go.

State law now allows hunters to go on private land, including fenced property, unless the landowner has posted signs telling them to keep away. The Legislature frequently has debated proposals to reverse that assumption and declare property off-limits unless the landowner posted signs saying hunters were welcome.

Sen. Robert Erbele, R-Lehr, introduced legislation that declared fenced property closed to hunting. It drew strong opposition, and senators voted 39-7 on Tuesday to defeat the measure.

"The current system, overall, with some glitches and some people driving across land they shouldn't be … is working pretty well," said Sen. Joel Heitkamp, D-Hankinson.

Erbele called the measure "really a bill about private property rights … It just tried to narrow the scope of the posting law just a little bit."

Of North Dakota's 39.4 million acres of farm land, about 11 million acres are pasture and range land, the North Dakota Agricultural Statistics Service says. Pasture and range land usually is fenced for livestock.

Erbele's rural district includes Emmons, Logan and McIntosh counties in south-central North Dakota, and western portions of LaMoure and Dickey counties.

He said he got a number of e-mail messages accusing him of being too closely allied with hunting guides and outfitters. Guides and outfitters are more solicitous of a landowner's property rights, and farmers and ranchers often are more willing to work with them as a result, Erbele said.

"It's not so much about the matter of money, but it's because those guides and outfitters have come to their yard and have asked permission," he said. "That's really what the landowner wants."

The bill is SB2281.