What were they thinking? We live on 5 wooded acres, which includes a
stream corridor. Last year, a subdivision with a bunch of new houses
got finished, with their yards backing up to the stream corridor. They
are across the stream from us. We had No Trespassing signs along the
property line, but someone, either a builder or realty company, stole
them. I look for solitude in the woods, so I rarely visit the area
that backs up to these houses, but on Saturday, I decided to take one
of our old trails on the side of the creek they live on. It seemed
awfully clear for a trail that had not been used for several years,
and widened into a mess of garbage. Somebody had created a massive
network of trails lined with stacks of newpapers and cardboard boxes.
They were bringing these large cartons from a business in another
town. We called the sheriff's department, and together, we figured out
which house the network was leading from. He paid them a visit, and
Sunday morning, I spent two hours getting all this stuff up, making 5
large piles. Some of the newpapers were from last spring! The ground
had been covered all summer, and the plants under it were dead. The
idiot who did this was out there this morning with a wheelbarrow,
picking up the piles. I picked the stuff up Sunday because I couldn't
stand the thought of my land suffocating under all that mess. I take
the woods very personally.
Meanwhile, it rained, and all the denuded trails are mud and standing
water. I wrote letters to all the homeowners on that stretch,
informing them of what happened, and that the woods were private
property. The trails can't grow over if people use them.
Boy are they gonna have bugs this summer, but they better not spray on
my land. It doesn't take much to impact a productive lowland. A little
bit of clearing, and you get a swamp.
How anybody could undertake such a misguided project on a neighbor's land is beyond me. Have people no respect for anyone but themselves? How about the earth?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Do they know who did it? I'm outraged and on your property yet.
Hope this gets taken care of. And you're so right--what cost to the enviroment? They didn't even care.
Yes, we do know, and they picked up the piles. I'm not going to pursue anything else, because these people live across the creek from us. I'm not looking to start a war. We did follow up with a letter, making sure they understood that the woods beyond their yard were off limits, but I didn't call them idiots.
Apparently, this is a common problem. Bruce had similar trouble, and another friend we spoke to also had a similar problem. He ran into rotting pumpkins and related trash behind his house. While he was out there, a man from a neighborhood behind his land came over and asked him if he knew where the common property ended. Our friend informed him that there was no common property, that this was his back yard. He hasn't seen the man since, but the trash is still there.
I think it's a problem of a changing area, and a lot of new people. The folk who have been here a long time are all on at least an acre. I have neighbors in trailers, but they all have a lot of land. The new subdivisions have larger houses, but small yards. I don't think they see what we have as being a yard. An 800 ft. stream corridor just doesn't fit their definition of private.
It may also be that realtors are misleading them. Thus, the "No Trespassing" signs that disappeared. Anything to make the sale!
I think they key issue here is lack of respect - not just for private property / private land but for the land itself. Dumping rubbish in this way is called fly-tipping in the UK and is a real social menace. There are fines in place for people caught doing it but such a punitive measure is usually a waste of time and nobody ever sees anypne doing...
Fly tipping? Interesting way to put it. So it's an international problem.
Just thought I'd follow up and say that I got a very nice letter and an apology from the person who did it. Now, I'm glad I didn't fire off an angry letter.
He even offered to replant the areas with clover to attract more deer, but I think it would be best to let it cover itself. I don't really want human impact, including my own, and I don't want to introduce plants that aren't already there. This is my feeling with nature. Humans are not the most important thing in the world.
There is another area which is getting really swamped. This is also a common problem here, whenever they build subdivisions. Neighboring lands get too much water. The ground becomes too soft to support the existing trees. We've already lost several, one of which landed on a car, but this one area, already a wetland, is far wetter than it's ever been. I'm thinking about introducing cypress, but I want to be careful about it.
Swamps and estuaries are life soup. You don't want to mess with them too much.
Nina, I'm glad you had some closure on this issue. I went back and checked not long ago, and the mess is still there on my property, tho there doesn't seem to be anything 'new'. I DID take down a couple of small dead pines, just to let them know that I haven't forgotten that it's my property (well, as much as any of us can say we 'own' a part of the earth!)
I haven't heard from or spoken to these creeps since, nor do I intend to...unless it's to wave bye-bye as the moving van takes their stuff away (but then I'd probably get an even worse neighbor, next time!)
I don't have much faith in people any more. Just drive around town, and you'll see how much consideration you get, right?
fly tipping! I like that! :)
Post a Comment