Purple Paint on Illinois, Wisconsin Trees. What Does It Mean?

While out on a hike through a wooded area in northern Illinois, I noticed some trees have paint markings on them and wasn't sure if it was vandalism or why someone was tagging trees.

If you see a yellow or orange paint marking on a tree, that's for "harvest boundaries" according to Famlly Handy Man, and if you see a black paint marking on that same tree, it's considered an "eraser" that marks an error.

Trees that have the bottoms of their trunks painted completely white are being protected from what's called sunscald. According to Taste of Home, sunscald happens to trees during the winter when "extreme fluctuations in temperatures cause the bark to split."

Next time you're out for a stroll and see purple paint markings on a tree or fence post, you immediately will want to go in the other direction.

According to Illinois' Purple Paint Law, landowners can still use 'No Trespassing' signs to warn others to stay off their property, but as an alternative purple paint may be used by landowners to "mark trees or posts to indicate their property boundaries."

According to the Illinois Forestry website, if you're marking trees with purple paint it needs to be "with a vertical line at least 8 inches long and between 3 and 5 feet off the ground with no more than 100 feet between marked trees."

If you're putting the marking on a fence post, the purple paint should be "marked by painting the top two inches which must be between 3 and 5 feet off the ground with no more than 36 feet between posts."

It also states that "landowners using purple paint must also post a sign indicating their use of this method at the main entrance to their property."

CLICK HERE to find out more about the Purple Paint Law.