Forestry 101: Maps and Boundaries
Maps and photos are useful tools for locating your property’s boundary lines and understanding how your property fits into the surrounding community. They also can show the location of important property features (such as family cemeteries, ponds and timber stands), guide decisions on improvements such as trail placement and are required for participating in forest certification programs. Accurately marked boundaries are important for timber sales and property transfer, and can reduce incidences of trespass, timber theft and adverse possession.
If it’s been a while since your last survey, consider hiring a professional surveyor to mark your boundary lines. If you want to mark the lines yourself, you can get a legal property description from your county courthouse and use a mapping program such as Google Earth Pro, the Web Soil Survey, and InForest on your computer or smartphone to produce a map.
Marking Boundary Lines
Protecting Your Forestland Asset: The NC Landowner Protection Act (N.C. State Extension)
The NC Landowner Protection Act (passed in 2011), does not change general trespass laws nor have any effect on lands which are not posted; the Act strengthens existing trespass law on private property by clarifying three elements.
Marking Boundary Lines (video part 1)
In this first part of a series of 4 videos, N.C. Tree Farmer Rett Davis talks about why a landowner needs to know where property lines are located.
Marking Boundary Lines (video part 2)
In this second part of a series of 4 videos, N.C. Tree Farmer Rett Davis discusses how to locate property corners as well as how those corners may be marked or identified.
Marking Boundary Lines (video part 3)
In this third part of a series of 4 videos, N.C. Tree Farmer Rett Davis discusses locating property lines between corners as well as markings that may help identify the lines.
Marking Boundary Lines (video part 4)
In part 4 of this series, N.C. Tree Farmer Rett Davis talks about marking your property boundaries for no trespassing and demonstrates how he marks trees on his farm.