Your concern about retaliation certainly has merit, depends on how rotten the people are that trespassing. The problem is as you suggest, its not possible to patrol or keep an eye on the place. Larger tracts of land are even more difficult to watch over.
I think the first thing is to figure out how to maintain a presence around the place, if can be done, it helps deter these kinds of people.
Law enforcement and other presiding authorities, and the laws in your state should be researched.
Where I am, I have little faith in law enforcement, and I am very familiar with the laws just the same, they just do not want to deal with it, as matter of a fact, the last time I spoke with one on the phone, he gave me a hard time, tried to turn my words, what I described to him around, I wanted to say "listen here you young disrespectful punk.... " instead, I re-stated what I said, and clearly told him that 30+ ATV's broke my fence line and are 1000 yds into densely posted land as well as illegally operating ATVS on my land and the state road to connect with the power lines again, clearly in violation of V&T 2403, 3, 3A. NYSP patrolman, nice young man stopped at the house, I explained the situation and said I'd like to make you aware of this large group, violating the V&T law on private land and the state road, was also some very young little kids on small atv's. He was nice enough to acknowledge, but thats as far as they'll go. Now if you positively ID one, you'll get, "do you really want to pursue the violation" as if its trouble for them to do.
Make a citizens arrest, you'll end up in court, though the laws(NY)allow for it, more so on someone trying to escape a felony crime in your presence, you nail the person red handed on your land and you end up in court, as its obvious they do not like being one upped or having a civilian vigilante taking action, the latter I can understand and some of the other things to, so its not about bashing the police so much as its still a problem for a landowner to resolve or find relief from in this area or state.
In my situation here, the fence goes back up, signs maintained, if they persist, steel angle iron tire spikes go out. If that causes them to escalate, its time to refer to the laws and see where you can do the same thing they are doing, exploitation of weak, or under enforced laws.
I live here, I can react timely when home, I can sit and wait when times are good for them to show up, usually saturdays mid-day, when nice out, spring time etc. I do not see anything prohibiting me from popping out with an intimidating weapon on me (brandishing is described in the law- have to be careful there) masked and exhibiting a hell bent for leather attitude to intimidate whomever it is.
I had a jerk come through the other night, I jumped out of my stand, got within 50 yards could not cut him off as I should have moved a little sooner, but I lit him up with a powerful LED light, a total surprise, I said nothing, red dot laser would have been even better, if people think you are not playing with a full deck, and it does take a little effort with some bizarre behavior, it tends to work. Every situation is different. I am fortunate that rarely do things escalate, but there are a couple of real nuisance guys out there, this fellow, I have seen before, I absolutely will not tolerate these clowns in the dark on my place. I do have tire spikes out on the property line where a fence needs to be finished, signs posted, you come in, its your problem and I'll want you and your atv removed immediately, have yet to make that call and hope I do not have to.
I had a friend chased out of a 300 acre tract not far from here, locals further out in the woods "trash" are some spiteful jerks. He posted it, patrolled it, caught poachers whom were prosecuted, NYSP involved also rumored to want to hunt it too, (heresay, but I did have a conversation with them about the situation just by chance, I liked that crew, they were open and honest with you, as long as you were respectful, just common sense to be that way).
Well the retaliation was they burned a barn down, death threats, was a real hot bed, Fox News showed up, another good friend in the trio of us one evening, took a nice 8pt, we were field dressing it, here comes an unmarked white van creeping up a long driveway, I immediately took cover and set up, one wrong move, they would have never known what hit them. News crew thankfully, and I am like, who in their right mind needs this aggravation, and high concern for anyone approaching. He sat in unbeknownst to the idiots talking about "him" in the local country store, they don't like that guy who bought it so and so's place, we ought to do this and or that to him. He was an accomplished black belt, airborne ranger, and avid outdoorsman, the short of it, his life long dream was interrupted, he moved to Alabama, eventually because of this, likely persuaded by his wife and concern for his kid. Now we rarely if ever see them. Locals over ran him, and he would pop out in camo, out of nowhere and scare the stupidity out of them at times, but eventually it was too much. You have to pay the taxes, the mortgage, you have every right to the place, but the locals say, we were hunting here for years...... you ain't gonna run us off....
The lesson I learned was to have a smaller, more controllable and easier to look after place, and thats what it is like here. I worked away for years, same long hours and it took me a good long while to take back what is ours, make a presence known and deter these people, as of now its tolerable, with some trespass at times, usually just ATVs, but I did have one person and their friend sit in our stands, played dumb, did not see the signs, but he forgets what he said to me when he was drunk one evening, as I went to pick up an to-go order at our great Italian place, there he was flappin his jaw, yeah I saw your place, all posted, people will try and play you, even ones you know, I worked with him back in high school, not a bad sort, had permission on the neighbors land cause he drinks there too, buddies, good guy, atty, very respectable, seems once he was on his place, it was ok to go over the line and use our stands.
A little long winded, take some time, do a little research and see what you can to get a presence seen on that place and see what else you may be able to do, being that far away is a pain in the neck, we have another place 30 miles from here with livestock, was a royal pain to look after, or deal with problems, I know the routine well, not worth the time, but sometimes things need to be done, or like you said, might come back to a smoldering pile of ash, people are so damned spiteful over crap like this.
