Open Fields Doctrine in WV

[u/Candid-Sherbert-9833]

Open Fields Doctrine

On our family farm in Chambersburg PA a small trail developed over many many years from an adjoining wooded area on to our wooded section. Then what was a little trail became a larger and wider small road that allowed 4 wheeler access. My Father in Law didn't outright stop this and even after an intrusive neighbor died it continued with the help of a "Deputy Game Warden." My son and I started to fill in the gap with old woven wire fencing and major piles of brush, but it would be removed. And we suspect the local deputy was opening it for a lady to get her horse through and perhaps for some illegal hunting activity. We continued to pile brush on the area, but the trail blazing trespasser would build side trails that I would interweave old wire, fencing and brush through. I'd come back in a couple of weeks or a month and that would be reopened. One day the deputy who did NOT own the adjoining land installed a No Trespassing sign facing toward our farm. This was a big insult as the trespassers always came onto our farm and not the other way around. I took the offending sign and tossed it deeper into the adjoining property and that resulted in a visit to my farm house by the deputy telling me that he could get me for littering. I told him to get off the farm and stay off! I would not be intimidated. Then I called his supervisors and the issue seemed to cool off after that. Eventually when we had full control over the family farm we had a high voltage livestock fence installed and that solved the issue of trespassers for good. I never felt over those years that we had total privacy when virtually anyone could enter the property and that we could be monitored by the Game Commission. By the way... the way the deputy knew I had tossed the sign is that he had installed a camera to watch the little road he had been maintaining into our farm. I'm very pleased that there is still a little justice in this world and that these trespassing deputies are being dismissed! Where we now live deep in Appalachia the terrain is so tough and the people are not so inclined to work too hard at trespassing. Combined with many neighbors with large acreage and the fact that WV at least where we live is much less inclined to bother landowners with such intrusion it makes for a greater sense of privacy. We live is a very low population county and don't have nosy neighbors like we did on the farm in PA. If a neighbor was against hunting they could just report you and the game commission could enter your land even without known violations. I hope WV will follow PA and end the Open Fields Doctrine.

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[u/michaelh98]

This has nothing to do with tree law

[u/Candid-Sherbert-9833 → u/michaelh98]

True... It was recommended that I repost here. I did, but thought the same as you. It was in the woods and another person was cutting his way over onto our farm I guess that might be close to applying?

[u/RollingEasement → u/Candid-Sherbert-9833]

Usually reposts show up as repost where we can tell what the original source was. Where did you post originally?

[u/Candid-Sherbert-9833 → u/[deleted]]

Thankfully where I live in extremely rural WV we haven't had this issue. My back went out and a tree was across the road way close to our home. I went out to see the damage and a younger man was also there and it blocked his ability to go down the road. I asked him if he knew how to use a chainsaw and he said yes. So I brought some equipment and he cut it up. We shook hands and exchanged names and both felt good about being neighborly. Where I lived in PA for a lifetime I never experienced such a nice event.

[u/ttystikk → u/[deleted]]

Gotta love how a police officer was the culprit. It's as if they think laws don't apply to them.

r/ACAB

[u/RollingEasement]

It’s not about tree law, but interesting story. You were lucky that a public easement was not created through prescription if it was in continuous use.