While public land is intended to be used by the public for recreational purposes, some officials have decided that paintball is not an acceptable way to use this land. In Ohio, for example, "No person shall discharge any device capable of propelling a capsule which upon impact with a person or object will release a dye or colorant within any state forest except as permitted by the chief or authorized agent." So, if you're buddy buddy with the forest ranger you can play, otherwise you're out of luck.

What are the policies behind this? Sure, there are areas where paintball playing could be disruptive, but a blanket ban on paintball for large tracts of public land seems pretty extensive. It's possible that the forest service is concerned with paintball remains left on the trees, but paint washes away and is non-toxic. Maybe ranger say some paintball players leave garbage after playing, but so do picnickers. I don't see the problem.

I'm not sure why paintball players are sometimes blocked from public land, but I'd be interested to find out