Blake Thomsen, a licensed land surveyor from Chelsea, Vermont, contacted the magazine with a request that we run a small blurb explaining to landowners why they might see a surveyor wandering around their back 40, possibly cutting brush. It seems Mr. Thomsen had been cutting sight lines recently, when a neighboring landowner became upset that the clipping was being done on his property instead of on the actual property that Thomsen had been hired to survey. We’re happy to try to shed some light on this subject.
While a landowner has every right to object to the cutting of brush or trees on their property, it’s also important for them to realize that since property lines often run along tree lines, a surveyor often needs to create an alternative line of sight. This sometimes necessitates clipping brush on a neighbor’s parcel.
Here, Mr. Thomsen explains the process:
As a Licensed Land Surveyor in central Vermont for the last three decades, I have had to cut more brush, branches, and saplings than I care to remember. The Vermont landscape rarely allows us to make measurements directly from one property corner to another. We therefore have to clear “sight lines” near property lines which allow us to make measurements to corner monuments and to other relevant physical evidence along property lines. At times it is much more practical and efficient to clear these “sight lines” on the abutter’s side of the line, rather than the client’s side. As surveyors we do so much chopping that we sometimes forget that what seems normal and necessary to us may be offensive to someone else, specifically the abutting land owner.
In the cases of brush cutting, one would hope that common courtesy and common sense would rule the day. If a prized rose bush obscured a property monument, it makes sense that a surveyor should refrain from hacking without permission. If the brush clipping in question is a line of sight through an out-of-the-way honeysuckle thicket, it seems reasonable that a landowner would respect the surveyor’s right to do their job practically and efficiently.
While your neighbor’s surveyor may or may not find it necessary to cut brush on your property, he or she will certainly have to poke around your land looking for boundary evidence. This is part of the job. Parcels of land don’t float; they’re connected to everything that surrounds them. The evidence a surveyor finds on the parcel they’re hired to survey must be corroborated with evidence found on neighboring parcels, and everything he or she finds has to ultimately jive with legal descriptions on record in the town clerk’s office. And so you’ll often see a surveyor taking shots on your property corners, or digging in your front lawn for buried iron pipes. In such cases, all this means is that they’re doing a thorough job reconstructing historical boundary evidence. This benefits every landowner in the neighborhood.
In his letter to us, Thomsen points out that he typically sends a “Notification of Survey” letter to abutters letting them know when he’ll be working on or near their property. He suggests that anyone receiving such a letter should feel free to contact the surveyor, not only with concerns, but also to share information about their property. This helps both the surveyor and the neighbor.
In general, land surveyors have tremendous appreciation for the rights of landowners and will do all they can to respect those rights.
As a landowner, it’s reasonable to expect a surveyor to respect your prized rose bushes. It’s also important to realize that a surveyor found “trespassing” on your land has a legal and a professional right to be there.
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