What can you do on a easement through wetlands?

Anonymous-0 · Jul 24, 2010

I just bought a tract at a auction in north Alabama.It is land locked with no access to any roads.My dad"s farm joins it.It was sold at a auction and the tract included a 60" easement on the side of another tract owned by the same seller and the 2 tracts were auctioned off at the auction .Here"s the problem the 60" easement starts from the paved road in a now dry wetland.Can i go in there and cut trees and use it?

Anonymous-0 · Jul 24, 2010

Assuming you own the wetland, and it is a designated wetland I think you can drive across it or cut trees on it as long as you don't drain it. If it doesn't have some official designation as a wetland I would drain it before it does.

Brian Love · Jul 24, 2010

if it is a legal recorded easement i would but i dont know if DNR would think otherwise

sotxbill · Jul 24, 2010

i would very quietly cut the trees and repair the road that goes down the easement and say that it has been there since the indians were there. If its an established road and an established easment, it can stay forever. So go trim up a few branches here and there.. but do it quietly,, and drive across it reqularly and gradually let it be know that that your reqularly drive across it...

Ky Hauler · Jul 24, 2010

I heard of a guy in Arkansas, I believe, who had some type of low wetland and got caught filling it. Didn't know it was a wetland. If it has cat tails then be careful. They watch with airplanes, so they can justify their jobs by nailing someone. This guy got prison time, too.

paul · Jul 24, 2010

After replying on the other forum, I looked it uo a bit. This web site says you might be able to, but you need to talk to the right people first.

http://www.cicacenter.org/swift2.cfm?st=AL

So, do you call the right people, and then they say no or you need to spend a fortune to do so...

Or do you try to do it quietly under the radar & get it done with no one noticing - then get caught (tick off anyone when you bought it, or you imply there is a shared easement with some other new acreage?) and really get into trouble for having no permits.....

Tough call.

--->Paul

GordoSD · Jul 25, 2010

You can cut trees in a federally designated wetland , but you cannot pull them out, or pull the stumps out. You can cut them as low as you want to.

Gordo

Anonymous-0 · Jul 25, 2010

Thanks everyone for the help.This is a new easement that was taken away from the edge of another tract that was sold at the same auction i bought mine at.

BCnT · Jul 25, 2010

if its not designated a wetland on the survey,do the work before it gets recorded as wetland...i had problems with opening a dedicated city street because part of it went thru a slew...COE inspector told me if i'd done the work before they got involved nothing wouldve been said.

TomH in PA · Jul 25, 2010

If you really meant a five foot wide easement I suppose you can walk in or drive in with an ATV, certainly not a truck. Is there a reason for it being too narrow for a proper road?

First thing I'd do is try to make friends with the owner of the other lot. You have a right to cross his property but you don't want him to get an attitude about you opening it up and using it.

noncompos · Jul 27, 2010

Steve, you need local legal advice from a land-use atty, or at least an atty experienced in Alabama easement law...
You don't give enough info re' the original creation of the esmt or what lands it was created to benefit...
In some jurisdictions (most? all?) if tract A has an esmt for access over tract B, and the esmt is only for the benefit of A, and the ownership of tracts A and B merge into one owner, the esmt MAY BE EXTINGUISHED, and if not re-created correctly when the merged tract is again split into A and B, the esmt may not be valid...(if originally for the benefit of A and other lands, it may be extinguished as to A but remain in force as the the other lands)...
Esmts are an extremely complex, complicated and messy segment of real property law, and even when esmt law is uniform between different states, each states interpretations and applications may differ...and that's before getting into any wetland questions...

What can you do on a easement through wetlands?

Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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Brian Love

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sotxbill

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Ky Hauler

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paul

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Anonymous-0

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BCnT

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TomH in PA

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noncompos

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