Green Horizons

Do you know where your property lines are?

By R. Scott Brundage

Being a professional forester for 51 years and a Consulting Forester for the last 30 years, I have been amazed to find that a majority of woodland owners do not know exactly what land they own. Most owners know where some corners are and some property lines, particularly if there is a fence, but do not know for sure where all the lines are.

If you are going to manage your woodlands properly, you need to know where the property lines are. Why? If you are going to have a timber sale, the forester has to know where the property line is so no trees are marked and cut on the neighbor's property. In Missouri, state statutes have a triple damage section concerning trespass. Therefore, as a Consulting Forester, if I mark for sale trees on your neighbor's land and they are sold, I am liable for triple damages. The same holds true for a Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) crew who kill undesirable trees and vines to release and let grow the valuable desirable crop trees. If the woodland owner puts in access roads, waterlines, skid trails or log yarding area, the owner should know where the property lines are.

When a forest landowner calls and asks for help, we set a time and place to meet. When I arrive, I have a current Plat Sheet of the area, an aerial photo, an aerial photo with topographic lines and another aerial photo of the property with the soils map superimposed on the landowner's property. All this is available from a computer except the Plat Sheet. I encourage landowners to collect the same tools so they can be more familiar with their property.

As mentioned before, the forest landowner must know exactly where their property lines and corners are. Usually, there are two choices to solve the problem: one cheap, one very expensive. Here is the fun (and inexpensive) way to relocate the old marked property lines. Previous owners most likely knew where their lines and corners were, and sometimes put up a fence. If you know where and how to look, you can often find evidence of the old fence. Start by going to your local Assessor's Office to get a large aerial photo map showing your property lines. These maps are very accurate because land taxes are based on them. Head out with the map, a compass and some fluorescent marking tape to re-establish your lines. First try to find a corner or starting point. Usually there is something visible, i.e., corner fence posts where fences come together at the edge of forest and fields. Often an iron surveyor's rod driven into the corner is visible.

If an old fence was present, start following your compass so you know approximately where the line is and look for old fence posts, wire on the ground, pieces of wire growing out of trees along the line, etc. If you follow the compass line and check the aerial photo often for confirmation (roads, fields, streams, buildings, powerline or pipeline rights of way, for instance), you can often follow exactly along the old fenceline. Kids love to help and go wild each time they find a wire, or some other piece of the puzzle. When you find any evidence of the old line, flag it with a piece of tape. The next step is to buy 6 to 6 1/2-foot steel "T" fence posts, and a fence post driver (which is safer than a sledge hammer). Begin at the property corner and drive in a steel fence post next to the surveyor's iron or corner post. I like to use three people and then start down the old, poorly marked line and drive in a new steel fence post every 100 feet. If it is more than 100 feet between the flagging tapes marking the discovered old line, one person goes ahead 300 feet and places a fluorescent ballcap on the old flagged area. Another person takes two fence posts and the driver and goes down the old line 100 feet. The third person puts his fluorescent cap on the last steel posts. Now you can tell the middle person exactly where to put in the next steel post. The middle man then moves on another 100 feet and repeats the last step. This method guarantees a perfectly straight line, and is much cheaper than a survey. Avoid using the small, cheap electric fence posts because they can easily be pulled out, making the line impermanent.

If you must know exactly in order to build a fence or something else, you must hire a surveyor, who can legally establish a property/boundary line.

There is a third option that is very cheap and could serve your immediate needs. You have found your corners, but have no line and want to have a timber sale. Take a compass and fluorescent flagging tape and start at a known property corner. Carefully shoot as straight a line as possible to the other known corner. Liberally flag the line so it will be easy to find on your return.