One of the reasons for the wide jurisdiction of conservation officers is the long standing principle in this country that wild game belongs to the people, not the landowner. It all goes back to that sore spot over the king and other wealthy landowners trying to bust chops of poor peasants for stealing their venison chops. So a CO can pretty much enforce the state and federal hunting laws on most any private or public property. They are spread pretty thin however, with normally only two or three officers at best in each county, so they tend to focus their attention on areas that have higher concentrations of hunters such as the WMAs.