stolen trees

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64conv65hard

FABO Gold Member
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Let me fill you in with the history first then I'll ask the question.
My wife is the oldest of 4. she has 2 brothers (I'll call them brother#1 and brother#2) and a sister. They lived on a farm with over 600 acres. Her father owned 1/2 with another person. When my wifes father died he left each of his children 1/4 of his half of the farm. He leaves all the equiptment and cattle to Brother#1 also. Shortly afterwards brother #1 comes up with enough money to buy the other half of the farm (he never worked a meaningful job). Some years pass and my wife wants her percentage cut off the farm. It takes 7 years to get the surveyor to finish the survey (surveyor works with brother#1 who is now an appraisor) Brother #2 refuses to sign the papers for the split of the farm unless we build a road acroos our land and grant him right of way so he can build his dream house. Brother #2 bought the land from my wifes sister so now he has 80 acres adjoining our 40. My wife agrees because we were able to divide our land into 4 lots and we would need a road for the subdivision anyway. It's a gravel road wide enough for 2 cars can pass and the trees were cut back to 15' awy from the road, all expenses paid by us and road is entirely on our property. Anyway, last year I was walking our property (all hardwoods) and I notice about 12 trees missing in the middle of the woods (about 2 feet in diameter) I questioned her brothers about this and they say they needed to cut firewood for their mom. Now remember that brother#1 has over 1200 acres now and brother 2 has 80 acres surrounding his house and their mothers also. When I ask them about this they tell me our trees are easier to access. We told them they can use all the trees that were cut down to make the road and under no circumstances will they get permission to cut down trees. We know for a fact that both brothers are using the firewood to heat their houses. We put up barbed wire where they were accessing the woods from the road so now thy are cutting trees along the road.

For the last ten years we have been cutting down a Christmas tree on the farm (we always asked brother#1 first since the right trees were on the cattle part of the farm, even though at that time my wife still owned a percentage of the farm) Last year brother#1 told us we could not cut down a Christmas tree. So this year we go to the farm (we live about 70 miles away) to get a christmas tree (neighbor gives us permission to get one off his property) and as I am walking down our road I see that 2 trees about 2' in diameter and 1 that was about 3 1/2' in diameter have been cut. We were at the farm 4 weeks ago and brother#2 had no firewood and the trees were there. Now both brothers and their mother have lots of wood. My wife was furious and asked me to call the sheriff to see what can be done. The sheriff told us that since we have not given them anything in writing that nothing can be done. So now my wife is typing a letter telling them that they will be considered TRESPASSING if any more trees are cut. So my question to those of you who have read this far, "what else should we do?"
 
YIKES, It sucks when these issues have to do with family.

I dont know what the family dynamic is in other areas of your relationship with them but since they have not honored your request to stop cutting to this point I would retain a lawyer have him / her draw up the document outlining your wishes. I would pay to have that served ( is it possible to have that document on file in the courts should you need to take this further) and I would also mark all the cut trees to date so that if any more are cut they cant give the excuse that those were previously cut. Basically this has to be an information gathering / documentation drill so that if you need to prosecute you have plenty of proof to make it stick.

Hope it works out on a positive note
joe
 
Wow, fambly can be real ***-clowns!! I would run some real high amps to the barbed wired fence!! If she is out numbered by her idiot brothers, I would sell...the brothers are probably staying put, so sell to someone who is going to annoy the hell out of them
Steve
 
Wife gets along with all of her siblings, she's the only one who talks to all of them. Their father taught them that it's all about yourself, don't be weak or worry about anyone else. Her brothers do not associate with the younger sister, but my wife talks to her at least 3 times a day. It's funny how the 2 brothers try to screw each other and anyone else but I'd swear there's no way my wife came from that family, she's nothing like that. She bent over backwards to make brother#2 happy and possible to build his house and this is the thanks she gets. This really is the first time that I saw her get pissed, I guess she is starting to realize that if she keeps allowing this to happen her 3 remaining lots will be barren fields instead of wooded like they are now.
 
Believe me, she wants to get rid of the land as soon as possible. We had to sell the first lot to pay for the road. The other lots have been on the market for the last couple of years but selling land can be tougher than selling a house nowadays. Now the power companies are trying to put in high voltage lines that go from WV to NJ so they will have enough power in 2020 (look up PATH) and guess where the lines go? right through 2 of our 3 remaining lots. So now who wants to buy a lot with this looming. The wife wanted to use the sale of the land for retirement so who knows. If only the PATH project would just buy it and we will be done with it all.
 
Not sure how it works out there, but in Washington State on a trespass you get 3 time the market value of the trees. You might check with your states forestry department on this.
Maybe if the brothers where to know how much their firewood is going to cost them if it happens again they might cut their own trees.
 
Well a good deterrent during the xmas season. Have been doing this for years when we realized some of our xmas tree fence line would go missing.

Now first week of december we start our fun. First we get a nice juicy load of cow manure. Take our side exiting manure spreader and plaster the trees with juicey manure. For better effect do both sides :) and then after just to be sure you got everything make another trip around :) Hopefully at the same time it has froze enough to make the juice stick to the trees till it thaws.

We lost 2 trees after this procedure and never happened again. I can just imagine the smell of xmas tree when they got the tree into the house for their xmas decorating party :)
 
after you "serve" the notice of no trespassing, a good game camera {motion activated camera for getting pics of wildlife} will hold up as evidence in court as long as you have a time stamp on the picture,,,,,,,,,,,,,,don't ask' I just know lol
 
I've thought about that. The road is about 1/2 mile long where they "harvest" from. Will 1 camera cover that much area? I'm sure they would see and steal the camera also. It's seems to be in their blood.
 
perhaps if you offered some "hunting rights" to some ,shall we say,friends,they would not only be able to help you with the camera deal, but also help out with the alleged tree swipers. Just an idea,,,,the cameras are only good for 20-35 yards max with the picture getting very pixelated after that
 
Talked to one of the closest neighbors and she told me she heard them cutting down trees about 3 weeks ago. I asked them if they ever hear chainsaws again to give me a call and I'll drive there to get pictures. The husband said if he hears them he'll shoot some pictures for me. It helps that the neighbors can't stand them.
 
I figure they should be getting their letters today. That should make thing interesting.
 
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