The board of water management commissioners of any district organized under this article or its employees or agents or cooperating state and federal agencies, including contractors and their employees, and the engineer and members of the board of viewers and their assistants may enter upon the lands within or without the district in order to make surveys and examinations to accomplish the necessary preliminary purposes of the district or to have access to the work, being liable, however, for actual damage done. Any person or corporation preventing such entrance shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.