Battling with Farm Trespassers
The last six years of my life have had one aim: move my husband and I to inherited farm land. It's a long process because my husband's Canadian and has to fulfil visa requirements and we have no money to build a house on our farm. In the UK you can't just buy a plot of land and build a cabin - there's A LOT of red tape to go through. But we're wading through life to get there...and get there we will.
BUT....we're having an issue with trespassers on the land. It's unsurprising - after all, it's been largely left for the past two decades. And so a culture has set in that these 40 acres of Suffolk land are a free for all for those living locally. I don't necessarily mind the bee keeper who has 10 hives there but he never actually asked. Nor do I mind the gardener of the adjacent land making a few compost heaps on overgrown land. But, you guessed it, I was never asked.
What particularly concerns me are the activities that going against my ethics and planning for our small farm. For instance, two pheasant feeders have appeared. Whilst this seems harmless, does it imply pheasants are being raised for a shoot? And if so, are people going to come and shoot them on my land? And the tyre tracks through the grass clearly shows vehicle movement - are people joy riding or bringing dogs onto the land to hunt for rabbit, hare and deer? I'm trying to create a conservation safe haven for wild animals <- such activities are clearly at odds with our mission.
Living two hours away at the moment means there's little I can do to safeguard the property, and it will need us to move closer or, hopefully, on to the land, to actually catch perpetrators and set them straight. But it's frustrating to be conducting wildlife projects and land management and not know which strangers are wandering freely across our fields.
Have you had trespassers? How have you coped?
Hello stranger! Good to see you again.
I can imagine it must feel frustrating, particularly as, subconsciously, you must also feel like other people are getting to use your land more than you, at the moment.
Asking permission is certainly the best courtesy, but if they don't know who to ask or the owners are not there to ask, maybe they feel like it's easier to just do it, then apologise later if it's not okay. In a way it sounds nice that people are able to enjoy what you're creating there.
It's such a large property, I imagine that even when you've moved onto it, it's likely that you will still get people wandering onto it without you realising. It's definitely not on, that people think it's okay to drive cars onto there, though. I hope you can close up that gap.
Personally, I'd be looking at making it less easy to get cars on, then getting to know the neighbours and maybe even striking up deals with them using parts of the land (the beekeeper for example) in return for them just keeping an eye on things while you're not there. Best to build good relationships.
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