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Trespasser management
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Booshway
posted
Folks, there is a 1 acre lot next to my family farm that is of concern to me. It seems the elderly gentleman that owned the lot passed away and left no will. The county will now get involved.

Now all of his long forgotten relatives are all circling the property trying to prove their rights to ownership. I am staying out of the family fracas.

Now you might be wondering what this all has to do with trespassers and me in general. Well, here it is: Firstly, there will be all kinds of folks wandering around trying to determine where the property lines are and using any excuse to wander over the line and scope out what is on my side of the property line all the while pretending to have an interest in said property.

Well I took a pre-emptive strike recently. We found all the old surveyor's corner markers and installed well marked posts where each of the corners are. Then we installed a t-post every 20 feet around the property and painted them with blue boundary marking paint. Also, we nailed up 'No Trespassing; signs every 50' or less on trees along the property line. In addition, we painted the nation wide (At least Alabama state wide) PURPLE no trespassing symbol on every tree and post along the property line. Then...I painted blue boundary line paint on posts and any tree within a few feet of the property line.

This seems excessive but, I have experienced these happenings before. People like to argue over property lines and encroach on you if you do not take steps to prevent such behavior. I have seen them move survey markers and fence posts and anything else you can imagine to alter a property line. It is way better to have overkill on property line markers than to give "some people" a toe hold to encroach over on you.

At this time, one would have to be blind to miss seeing the property line. Also, any reasonably competent surveyor can find the existing corner and boundary markers. These existing property corners are established using satellite and GPS technology. With current surveyor's equipment, it is easy to locate old or missing survey markers. However, people will still argue over the lines and cause you grief if you are not prepared.

Painting the woods,
DanL


God bless America and Alba Gu Brath!
 
Posts: 569 | Location: God's farm in Alabama | Registered: 07 December 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I used to own some acreage over in Arkansas. Being as how it was a long, full day's drive for me to get there, I didn't get there often.
Well, the last time I did get there I was surprised to find that someone had painted those purple marks all along my property, and beyond.
I figure it was the neighbor, but I ignored it because I sold the property soon after that.

I bought my current home back in 2020. One of the major selling points for me was the 200 acres of paper company land directly behind us. It was open for hunting.
Several years later some wealthy fellow bought the whole acreage. First he had it clear-cut. Then he sub-divided it and sold it.
One guy bought the 70 acres directly behind my house. I had a ground blind out there on that property (before the clear-cut) but within a few yards of the boundary line. The new neighbor nailed up "No Trespassing" signs all around my deer blind, then surrounded the entire property with a barbed wire fence and "No Trespassing" signs about every 20 feet all around the place.
He built a small house and a barn back there.
I've spoken with him several times and offered to help out at his place in return for hunting rights - but NO WAY. He allows no one back there.
We hear him shooting often, at any hour of the day or night. Even 2 or 3 in the morning - blam,blam,blam,blam, on and on.

I admit to having mixed feelings about this trespassing thing. I grew up in a time when if a property wasn't posted (and very few places were posted back then), then it was okay to hunt there, no permission needed.
Now, of course, houses, factories, shopping centers, and parking lots cover many of the places that I used to hunt. No trespassing signs are everywhere.
I do understand the reasons for the no trespassing signs in this day and age of over population and trashy people. However, I find it sad and quite frustrating.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Good morning Rancocas.

I also find it sad that I have to go to these lengths to mark a property line and hopefully prevent trespassers. However, some folks will continue to violate common sense and courtesy. We used to allow hunting to most anyone that ASKED permission to hunt and followed common sense to close gates, don't leave trash, etc. Then came ATVs doing damage, and the people that would leave gates open for cows to wander out, etc.
Also, people buy a one acre lot and think they have the rights to 500 acres for their ATV & hunting pleasure. I have 2 neighbors with 1 acre lots that have a food plot, feeder and 3-4 deer stands right next to my fence. Folks...that is not hunting. Guess which direction they are shooting. I find wounded or dead deer almost every year on my property near these lots. Talk about common sense safety and humane hunting!!!

Getting off of my soap box now,
DanL


God bless America and Alba Gu Brath!
 
Posts: 569 | Location: God's farm in Alabama | Registered: 07 December 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Exactly.
The times and the people have changed.
Sad, and frustrating.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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I've never owned any real acreage but do know what you are talking about. Here in Maine one can hunt on ANY property not legally posted. But the DFW does recommend asking permission to hunt any property and that's wise.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
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This interests me as a retired land surveyor. I cringe at the use of GPS as a "sure fire" way of posting the corners. It takes a bunch of research through all the recorded deeds and surveys to determine where the corner needs to be set. Courts have held that original monuments have priority over what the deed description says and if a thorough search wasn't made before new ones were set it can develop a can of worms! I have seen numerous cases where the deed was not accurate and new monuments were set, only to find at a later date that the original stone, pipe or whatever had been set is several feet away.
 
Posts: 70 | Registered: 07 January 2022Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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I too am a retired land surveyor, and agree with Winter Hawk. Deeds are written by lawyers that don't know their a** from a hole in the ground. Only surveyors should be allowed to write deeds. I can't tell you how many times I have found original corners that were far from the corners described in the deed. In one case, the new deed cheated the land owner out of 23 acres which I found. This prevented a proposed subdivision on the adjacent land, and secured for me hunting rights.
 
Posts: 20 | Location: SE CT | Registered: 27 March 2017Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Hi gentlemen. I was with my Dad and his surveyor when the original corners of said property discussed above was surveyed out in the early 1960’s. My dad sold the lots much to my chagrin today.

All of the original monuments/iron pipe markers are still present. I am just trying to avoid future issues with folks.

My family has been on this property since before Alabama became a state (1818). We have been fighting to keep it ever since. I have deeds back to 1830’s when Andy Jackson overran the Creeks and the Government provided grants to folks living here and “improving” the property. Then the damned Yankees came down to bother us. Then reconstruction. Then one depression after the other. Then 2 world wars, Korea, Viet Nam and all the other fracases my family has been involved with. We have been fighting to keep this property for over 200 years. We will continue as needed.

I have made sure my son and grown grandson know every inch of property lines and boundaries.

Holding out as best I can,
DanL


God bless America and Alba Gu Brath!
 
Posts: 569 | Location: God's farm in Alabama | Registered: 07 December 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Those first Americans (Indians) had a terrible time with trespassers. We all know how that finally worked out.

Hanshi; how you say it is now in Maine is how I remember it growing up in New Jersey. We could go anywhere it wasn't posted.
As a teenager with a motorcycle I would strap my shotgun over my back and roam the countryside, hunting small game pretty much wherever I pleased.
There was a farm that I hunted regularly throughout the early 1960's. Then, I went off with the Navy for a few years. When I came home, one day I took my little brother to hunt small game on that farm. It was not posted. I parked beside a field and we went off hunting. We came back to find my car boxed in with tractors and a very irate farmer screaming at us for trespassing. Things had changed during my absence. He was the new owner of the property. No more hunting there.
There was also a large blueberry farm where my family hunted rabbits and pheasants for many years. Sometime after I became a municipal police officer in the 1970's, patrolling that area, I caught two teenage boys red-handed after they set fire to a neighbor's barn. One of those boys was the son of the blueberry farm owner. Of course I arrested them.
Strange - after that no one in my family was allowed to hunt that blueberry farm ever again.

I miss the old days.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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