Trespassers, poachers and horses

[tracy]

We have some owners who are having difficulty with trespassers. Not just your ordinary walkers, but hunts, horses and poachers.

I know that fencing in the land, KEEP OUT signs etc can give some help, but I suspect not much. Any suggestions to help? I guess that poachers are armed trespass and the police should take this seriously....?

[treebloke]

We had a guy in our wood last week and all he was doing was sitting watching and listening, not causing any damage or problems but how do you know what their intentions are. We have a lot of kit there at the moment and just because they look and appear friendly its not alweays the case. There are no ROW. I doubt he would like it if I turned up in his back garden and got the kelly kettle out.

[Exeldama]

My own take is to challenge innocent loking or not. Make sure they know your getting registrations etc all the obvious stuff. Some people are just arrogant and think they can use but not contribute.... the locals ,. well some of them had the hump when the woods were sold because they had wandered through it for years . But they had never contributed in its upkeep and never had any rights to start with...... horse riders were the worst.

Poachers who are armed, you have to be careful . If they are present and armed its 999 and you MUST insist police arrive immediatley.... it is no diffrent to an armed person being in your garden....neither you nor police know their intentions much as you may assume...never accept we will look into it, type attitude.

Hunts are just brainless idiots all be it smartly dressed and with enough cash to fund a horse etc..which isnt cheap. There is a law and they should be abiding by it , real drag hunts are unlikely to deliberatley tresspass and if it occurs regularily contact the hunt master by letter and lodge a complaint of criminal tresspass with police. (obviously the horses and hounds will cause damage to your tracks ,hedges etc).

Best thing i guess is making access difficult (thus escape to). Make the official entrances lockable to vehicles and horses etc. Anyother possible easy entry points stuff full of brash.

Im probably a bit bolder than the average person so its simply a matter of if they run into me, my message doesnt tend to be misunderstood. Be polite but if the message doesnt sink in be firm. The last couple of times involved a teenager on his quad bike and two lads in their 20s with lurchers. Just by chance i was carrying my shotgun (quite legitimatley), and i suspect it was a little disconcerting to see a guy suddenly appear out of the undergrowth and challenge them. Shotgun obviously unloaded amd broken barrelled. (clearly never use any form of firearms or tool as an implied threat.)

I tend to go down the line of ."im sure your a very nice person BUT i have had a bit of bother and frankly if i catch someone stealing or causing me bother blah de blah de blah...i dont mean you of course..ahhhmmm ".

To be fair the teen was polite back and i understand wanting to have some fun on a quad bike..we have all been that age. The message was firm but he was a decent lad so got a pleasant response. The lurcher boys ..well it didnt take a rocket scientist to work out their game so my message was a little more frank although not something you could take as a direct threat...just implied i would be upset if i caught anyone running their dogs in my wood.

The problem is that these poeple dont get challenged enough. In part this is becausee people who own these woods may not feel so confident to do so. but if you appera weak these types will take advantage. They want an easy life same as everyone else so make a point of politely challenging them everytime, make yourself visible , if your scared be noisey, .. make sure you have your neighbours tell No`s then you have additional eyes and a bit of support.

[DuncanB]

Agree with the previous posts. Armed trespass is particularly worrying - and it (quite rightly) carries a substantial custodial sentence!

I find that good fencing and a polite, but firm approach helps. I have cameras to show if and where trespassing is going on - with the added bonus of some interesting wildlife shots (I got some great - if blurry shots of a midnight owl!), and they could, of course be used as evidence in a criminal conviction. These cameras have gone down in price - the one I originally had to ship from the US is now just under £120 on e-bay.

I have photographed some of the trespassers I have encountered on my land - but be warned, they really don't like being photographed, and there are some really nasty people out there!

Signs help too - I originally put a lot of effort into making signs up on boards and putting them onto posts - these all got pulled down! I then printed some colour signs on the computer, laminated them and stapled onto trees (cost: about 20p each), none of which have been touched!

[bat]

Hello, my wood hasn't really got any fences or signs and is next to a pretty remote public car park. I have no qualms about walkers, having walked in it for many more years than I have owned it. The only trouble is with 4x4's knocking the last remaining fence down and driving through it. Anyhow, sending a few photos with number plates to the police and the relevant council officer (who put a few logs in the right places) seemed to sort that one.

[Henrietta]

We had a bit of trouble with locals when we first purchased the wood, they obviously didn't like the fact that they could no longer walk in it, not that it ever had a public right of way One individual in his van, challenged us the first time we went to view it. He said we weren't allowed in there. I noticed he had some wood working tools in the back of the van. After we bought the wood, he started spying on us from the lane. Unfortunately we do have a lot of road boundary and can be seen in the vast majority of the wood. He has continued spying on us for the last five years now, I really think he's got a problem. We are in the process of building a shed and his surveillance has stepped up. I have been building brashing hedges to shield us from the road somewhat. I just hope we don't arrive one day to find a pile of ashes instead of a shed, or am I just being paranoid.

[Exeldama]

Your paranoid.... only kidding but most people are full of waffle and bluff. i doubt anything woud happen. However it never hurts to try and sit down over a cup of tea (arsenic) assuming its a persitent person. Some people just have very empty lives and genuinley have very little else to do but winge about others...think of him as a sad little fellow, unhappy with his lot.

I dot hink the brash is a good idea, its great for the wildlife, friendly to our enviroment looks ok and costs nil... putting up fences may encourage them to be dusted up..you cant do much to brash.

There is also the option of creating a local myth about spectres in the wood, but you might get mistaken for such a thing and have some ghost hunter persuing you with a sharpened stake..

[wrekin]

I'd echo the point about always escorting people off your land, with a reason if they try to argue they're not doing any harm: dog walking disturbs sensitive animals even by scent, and everyone else is at risk due to tree felling so for liability reasons they need to stay away unless specifically invited.

I think there are three broad classes of trespassers: casual walkers (including dog walkers), youths, and criminals.

Most of the walkers will be stopped by a high fence that they would have to damage to cross since they're not prepared to get caught doing that. If they feel there's some kind of right of way or established public use of the wood they might be more willing to push that a bit.

The youths are bored and/or looking for somewhere quiet to have a McDonalds, a bottle of cider from Asda, and a quick fumble with their boy/girlfriend away from adults. Fences again complicate things for them, and make it more likely they'll go nosing around on someone else's land instead. In particular, fences can make it harder to get out in a hurry and so make people more on edge about running into an angry landowner and not being able to get away quickly.

The criminals won't be stopped by physical barriers if they perceive the gain from stealing or fly tipping or whatever to be sufficiently large. (They use JCBs to steal ATM machines from banks after all!) Making casual trespass harder will help, in the cases where it's really preparation for coming back later with a van.

If people are using 4x4 vehicles to push down fences or to go round gates, then nails hammered through planks of wood can stop them. You need to be careful to avoid getting pedestrian trespassers with that though otherwise the police will come after you instead.

[bat]

I should have said that I don't keep anything worth stealing there (well, not any more - the last thing worth stealing (a post) was stolen. I seem to be a bit more of a laissez faire owner than most but I have checked with Garry the Beachtree and the insurance doesn't specify that you have to keep walkers out and I can't really bar everyone - someone owns the hunting rights, so he has to get in!

[austino]

I m in the process of havinga chestnut paling machine made. I tried for a longh time to find one but to no avail so am having one built using the youtube footage of one in action for reference. Whilst chestnut paling doesn,t look particularly dificult to get past it actualy is quite tricky. It soon can be masked by brambles etc growing over it. The beauty for me is other than the cost of the wire I can produce fencing at no cost and use some of my plentiful chestnut. Other woodland owners will be able to use it and see it as an investment for me and other woodland owners to increase security at no cost.