Fed up with Foresters
This morning I received a telephone call from prospective clients about a neighbor’s forest cutting plan. Their land has been marked by orange flags and they do not agree. Would I be able to survey their boundary to determine if the orange flags are correct?
During the conversation I found out there is a forester and a logging company involved. Also, the timber harvesting plan had been approved by the State Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). This means the State Forester has reviewed the plan.
While it is customary to advise the neighbors of their forestry activities the notice says nothing of a boundary survey to determine the extent of the cutting. While penalties would be levied against the forester for errors, the damage still would have occurred at that point. In my experience it would be better if the damage does not occur.
So what are the foresters relying upon to determine the extent of their harvest? The prospective clients told me one of them explained how they use a compass to run the line. Another was reviewing the extent of the boundary with an ipad device, that they assumed was running some GPS application. So, they wanted some verification from a land surveyor.
I told them it is the responsibility of the forester to have the boundary determined by a land surveyor and that if they are relying on devices such as a compass or a hand held computer they were most likely making an incorrect determination and they are breaking the law. Only a licensed land surveyor is legally permitted to perform land surveys.
I have spoken with the forester on other occasions and inquired if he knew this law. He said they determine boundaries all the time without a surveyor, but they tell the client that is not the legal boundary. So I asked him, “Do you tell them it is the illegal boundary?”
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