Friends of mine had left a large part of their land to forest it in pines and birch. After a few years they permitded some people to hunt on the land and put a leanto like shack there for shelter . Now, using some arcaic land use law in this county, the hunters have decided to seize the land as their own. They are very likely to succeed.

Thankfully, I have never allowed hunting or any other use of the timber areas I own. In fact I keep the sheffif busy running trespassers out of those timber stands during the hunting seasons. All the land is posted KEEP OUT-NO TRESSPASSING-NO HUNTING. I consider those forested areas to be ecologically importand. My friends felt the same about thiers. It just seems so surreal that they are going to loose their land.

It is insane for those jerks to claim some kind of squater's rights. What the heck is wrong with this county?! Letting them get away with this is going to cause a lot of trouble for others who have let people hunt on thier property.

I imagine most will let the lumber company clear the land rather than risk losing it. What a darn shame! They had best get that old law wiped off the books.

Allowing the creation of that lean to was a mistake. It constitutes a 'permanent structure'.

It is things like this that renew my faith in human nature. (My faith is that humans, as a whole, are not nice people.)

Some friends of mine had something tangentially similar happen with Gooche Island - a neighbor joined the town council and removed the rights of way to gain access to the island, because he did not like having campers on the island. Essentially making it so they could not get to an island that they owned in whole, other than by using a boat.

Tiny island, connected to the shore by a dam across the Royal River and by stepping stones further along. Both the dam and the path leading to the stepping stones were rights of way, and described on the deeds for both properties.

For some reason the neighbor thought that cutting off the rights of way would force them to sell the island to him. That didn't happen.

The folks that owned Gooche sued, won, and then gave the land to a nature preserve with the stipulation that camping be allowed on the island. Having the neighbor play dog in the manger had sucked all the fun out of owning the island for them. So, while they won, the yearly camping on Gooche Island is something that they don't do anymore.

But the neighbor now has to deal with more folks crossing the right of way and camping in his view. The end result was that nobody really won.

I wish your friends luck in fighting the suit.

The Auld Grump

Sorry to hear that. That's pretty messed up.

Invite Hells Angels USA (yes, all of them) over for a goodbye party. Tell them they can burn what every they cut down.

Any other revenge ideas out there?

That sucks. Some people are just ratbags.

Interesting question: Who will own the timber on that land? Just because they get the land title doesn't necessarily mean they get to own the timber as well. If this is the case then, although it may not solve the problem, it may soften the blow a little.

At least around here as long as you tell someone else that that is your land but that you don't mind them using it squatters rights dont apply.

The trick is that one side has to prove that this happened or didn't happen which can be tricky if you don't have anything in writing....


There's probably an exception in he law like that for them too. Do they have a good lawyer who can find it for them?

I agree that they should not have let them put that leanto shack on the land. They thought it was just a shed sort of thing ... a place to dress out the deer. In any event they certainly couldn't live there. There was no written agreement for anything however. Most people here just have 'an understanding'. I'm not like that ... not having been born and raised here.

I'll have to ask them if they still have the timber rights, but like me they could never sabbotage their land, drive the animals out or the like. I'm one of those tree huggers I guess. I take enough to heat my home and feld some for new growth if need be, but nature does a good job of that mostly. I've got about four trees struck by lightning this year that need to be taken out.

My family here are going to inspect my wooded land this weekend to be sure there are no deer stands, leanto shacks, or cut timber. I have oak, cypress, cedar, and maples and do not want to lose any of them. This whole thing has me so mad I could spit! No one should lose their land like that.

My sympathies and hopes it works out in yor favor Delta.

That really sucks about the land piracy laws. It seems private individuals and large corporations will do anything to take what is not theirs.

My brother-in-law has some land in SW Arkansas with lots of timber on it, but it is bordered by land owned by a lumber company. He had to move a few tree markers because the lumber company had marked some of the larger trees on his land for harvest, even after he had clearly marked the property lines after paying for an official survey before buying the land. He wanted to make sure of the extent of the holding. His main interest is preserving the land for wildlife and putting up an observatory since he is an amateur astronomer. Gets some purty nice photos of the cosmos.

Another thing that is happening lately in parts of the USA is the gas drilling companies coming onto peoples' land and screwing it up. Their drilling sites destroy the area. Most of the time they don't even clean up the area when done drilling.

It is ironic that the process used to free the gas from the rocks is called "fracking", short for hydraulic fracturing, where they pump a mixture of sand, water, and chemicals down deep, under tremendous pressure, to fracture the rock so the gas can be harvested. Plenty of incidents of ground water contamination and animal poisoning have been reported along with increased earthquake activity in areas where fracking is widely used. Seems like it is more than just the ground that is being fracked by the gas companies, if you take my meaning.

How much land can you claim by putting up a shed? Especially if no one lives in it. I can't see how they can lay claim to a whole forest that way.

Presumably they don't have plumbing in it. Is there some kind of law about waste disposal they are violating by making a permanent structure without facilities?

Why not just toss up another shed of their own near by?

When I was a member of one of the local fire departments, we went through a time when a small section of land on the border was affected by "adverse rights of possession" as the neighbor had an uncontested structure on the property for 15+ years. When we finally discovered the actual property line, it was too late as we had not said anything for all that time. BS, to be sure, but I think is distinctly different than what is going on with your friend in that your friend gave them permission to use their land. A good lawyer should be retained as verbal contracts (such as this) are still enforceable in court, just sometimes harder to prove.

My friends seem resigned that they will lose their land. I aked about their timber rights and they said they don't think they'll have any. Cripes!

My property has been surveyed and posted. It is always the first thing I do when property is bought. I am very boundery sensitive. That irritates some folks here and I've taken a lot of flack for not allowing hunting.

Do your friends still have to make payments on the property? If so I would stop payment and let the title owners sue the squatters.

My friends lack of fight is something I can't understand. They are upset about it but they think it is hopeless. It makes me wonder. I have lived here a long time but still don't know all the ways they have.