A Georgia lawmaker wants to do away with “no trespassing” signs and instead allow property owners to paint their trees purple.

Senate Bill 159, sponsored by freshman state Sen. Lee Anderson, R-Grovetown, follows the decades-old lead of other states, starting in 1989 in Arkansas. At the time, according to reports, rural property owners wanted an alternative to the "no trespassing" signs that they said were too easily removed, vandalized or just wore out too quickly.

Nearly a dozen states have followed suit, including Texas, North Carolina and Illinois. Why purple paint? It wasn’t used by the forestry industry, shows well in the outdoors and is one of the few colors that can be identified by someone who is color blind.

The proposal in Georgia doesn’t ban anyone from using the familiar signs, but instead adds purple paint to the state’s criminal trespass law as an alternative way to signal private property.

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