For the first time in many years I had to ask, then tell, two people to leave our property. These were not Quad riders but rather two grown, mid 20's, men who should have known better. These fellows were ripping around on dirt bikes in a summer fallow field making ruts up and down the hillsides. These ruts make waterways and cause severe ditching and damage to the land.

This will not cause us to close the property to respectful use by other hunters and campers but encouraged me to put a note on this board about being sure to ask before using other peoples property.

These two fellows are no longer welcome on our land. If they had ask before using I would have directed them to an area of flat land where their tire tracks would have caused no problem.

PLEASE help landowners allow the continued use of their property by asking permission and hauling out your trash. It is also helpful if you have a sheet of paper with your name, address and cell phone number as well as the description of your vehicle and license number on it. I routinely give my cell phone number to folks that want to use our property so they may contact me if they see anything I need to know about.

Thanks for listening to my rant and will now climb down off the soap box.

 

And Thank You for allowing people to ride. While on a flight recently I overheard parts of a conversation between a farmer and another gentleman, both from my area. While they were talking about hunting, the farmer happened to mention that he had a real problem with atv's causing crop damage at his place. As a result he had started kicking out the offroaders for the actions of probably just a few irresponsible riders. It made me sad to hear this, and by the change in tone of his voice, I didn't even bother trying to talk with him about the situation. Good luck to you, and I hope those riders that benefit from your generosity are curteous enough to return it in kind.

 

What I don't understand is why do people buy land out in the middle of nowhere and they do nothing with it? They don't farm it, clear the trees or the brush. To claim your land as yours you must make it look like somebody owns it. You land owners have NO Right to chase anybody off your land if the land has no signs as being owned by you or developed. Most ATV and dirt bike riders are good decent people that don't wanta be on private land, but if the land looks looks like nobody owns it then we have a right to be on it, what pisses me off some of you land owners don't have the courage to tell us its your land, you resort to dirty tricks like stringing fishing line between two trees over a trail, or making trap nail beds, why not install some fences or signs showing us its private land and taking responsibility in owning your land? Like get off your Lazy-Boy and do something with your land, make it look like you own it and nobody will ride on it.

 

Sorry, but you're dead wrong. It is YOUR responsiblility to know where you are riding, who owns the land and where the property lines are. It is not your God-given right to ride anywhere you want to unless you are specifically told not to. You should always assume you do not have permission to ride. Do your homework and ask permission. If it's not given, thank them for their time and move on.

As far as land owners "getting off their lazy-boy"... Fences are expensive and are usually put up to keep livestock in, not to keep ATV'ers out. I agree that No Tresspassing signs should be put up, but I think you will also agree that they are often ignored. People buy land for a lot of reasons, but none of them are any of your business. Maybe they want a place to hunt or a quiet place to build a cabin some day. Regardless, it is not for you to judge.

Of course, I do not agree with landowners booby-trapping their property, but I suspect if it is done, it is a result of years of dealing with snotnosed punks ripping up their land and running away when confronted. These traps can seriously injure or kill someone. It's hard to believe anyone does this.

 

MotoF150 is under the mistaken opinion that there is "Unowned" land laying around somewhere. To the best of my knowlage all land is owned by someone be it the Federal Gvt, State, County, private party or whatever. Someone is responsible for the property. Since the landowner pays the taxes where applicable it would seem they should have the luxury of deciding what they want to do with it within reason. If they elect to not spend a lot of money making it look like some folks think it should that's just too bad. It is economicaly impractical/impossible to make a couple thousand acres of farm/timber land look like a manicured park. With the current cost of fuel and machinery the return on equity for dryland farmers is in the negitive relm. Having damage done by people who have no respect for private property is a cost that can not be endured.

RSeB makes the point that it is your responsibility to know who's land you are trespassing on is absolutly correct. We generally do not post our land but do keep an eye out for people that are abusing the property. To date we feel this is the best course of action. As I have mentioned before, we appriciate people asking and attempt to make their visit an enjoyable experiance for them and us. We do not put up traps of any kind as that would be stupid and also put us at risk for endangering folks. I know that drug operations will put out traps around their grow operations but that won't be found on our place if we have anything to say about it.

AS far as getting out of my Lazy-Boy, NOT A CHANCE. I'm retired now and never put in more than 8 or 10 hours a day when I'm at the farm. You will find that farmers are some of the hardest working people around. Not only that but they have a hugh amount of cash invested just to make a living.

MotoF150 also wants to know why "they" don't clear all the brush and trees off the land. Why? Does he enjoy riding around in a clearcut and expects the world to supply his desires? My advice to him is go buy a couple hundred acres and do what he wants with it. He can even post it and ignore his neighbors.

 

Tencubed is right. It is owned by someone. Rules are very simple. If you don't have permission to be there you don't belong there. Case freaking closed.

No place to ride? I'm really sorry about that. You probably should have thought about that before you purchased an ATV. Lobby the state to provide more trails. I do that. Buy a couple of hundred acres to ride on. Approach landowners and work out financial and work arrangements to secure riding areas. You aren't going to get something for nothing. If you do get permission somewhere you had better police your own ranks with an iron fist. LOW NOISE, no trash, carefully layout your trails. We lost a HUGE riding area several years ago because a bunch of bad actors wrecked it for everyone. We tried to just make up for it by just working harder and let people know it wasn't us but that didn't cut it. We should have taken things into our own hands and stopped the offenders. Unfortunately we didn't and we lost a wonderful riding/camping/fishing/hunting area.

I work my *** off to have my own farm. I don't need every punk in the county thinking he can ignore the no trespassing signs and purple paint so he can ride on my trails, shoot my game, tear up my crops or disrupt my peace and quiet. I sure as hell don't see him helping me pay my property taxes or pay my farm and ranch insurance policy. I don't see him out there helping me maintain trails or fixing fences. On the contrary they're the ones cutting fences and tearing stuff up. I don't give permission. There are only a handful of people who ride with me on my place and it is because they know how to take care of things.

When I catch people I don't just ask them to leave. I call the sheriff. I press charges and apply for an injunction from them ever entering my property again. I take them to court for damages. When I win a judgment and they don't pay up I garnish their paychecks. If they get caught again they can be charged with a violation of the restraining order. If it is a hunters that are involved it even gets worse because conservation gets involved and even more fines are imposed. Once they find out that you don't screw around and that it will cost them serious money to be caught on your land trespassing is drastically reduced. When all of your neighbors start doing it (defense in depth) it really cuts it down.

 

There's the exact attitude that closes off more and more private and public land to ATV access. No trespassing signs? Fences? Apparently you've never owned land and experienced how those items are the first targets of people looking for places to tear up, I mean ride.

Why don't you buy your own land, put up no trespassing signs, fence it in and tear that up?

 

It's immature idiots like you who ruin it for the responsible others,, Here in wisconsin you can get busted for trespassing even though the land is not marked keep out, you have to assume it's private unless marked otherwise.. It is the riders responsibility to know where he is riding not the farmer or landower who has other things to worry about.

 

It's a simple matter to check tax records to determine who owns what. In rural areas even easier as the sheriff's department usually knows who owns what. But I doubt that people who erroneously consider it their right to trespass on unmarked property are likely to be dealing with public officials of any type unless forced to do so, like being arrested.

 

Yeah,

I don't understand why I get kicked out of every pond I ride in with my jet ski either. Seems like these pond owners don't really have a good reason not to allow me to ride in their ponds....LOL