HUNT organisers are writing to North Yorkshire landowners to ask their permission to continue legal activities on their land when hunting with dogs is banned.
Masters of the Derwent Hunt and Sinnington Hunt have written to landowners and the Middleton Hunt is in the process of doing so.
Bridget Till, a joint master of the Sinnington Hunt, said: "We need to obtain farmers' and landowners' permission in writing in order to give the strongest possible defence in case there is a prosecution for illegal hunting.
"It will not be an offence for hunts to gather and meet for hound exercise, cross-country rides or 'trail' hunting.
"I stress that we are only asking for permission for legal activities."
The term "legal activity" is stressed because under the terms of Hunting Act a person can be prosecuted if he knowingly allows land belonging to him to be entered into, or used in the course of, hunting a wild mammal with a dog.
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