Good Fences
“the property shall remain open to the general public for recreational purposes subject to reasonable restrictions”
This line from section five of the Conservation Restriction on the Ragged Mountain property is key to the RMF’s values as an organization. Our property is fully open to passive recreation. Almost thirty years of effort to acquire and then conserve Ragged, have been committed to this end. To challenge this access is to challenge the very purpose of the RMF.
At the same time, it is important to us to be good neighbors. The RMF does its best to address concerns, remove hazardous trees from boundaries, clean up roadside trash and keep a low profile. Our traditional view has been that by being a quiet neighbor, we were being a good neighbor. For the most part this approach has been successful… for the most part.
Over the spring and into the summer, the RMF started receiving reports of visitors, approaching our property via Andrews St. being challenged by an abutting property owner. Invariably they would be accused of trespassing and told that accessing RMF property, via Andrews St. was illegal. The RMF tried to clarify the issue with the neighbor in question on multiple occasions but was unable to come to an understanding. As encounters with the property owner increased in intensity, the RMF was informed of at least two occasions where visitors felt the need to notify the police. Both of these encounters involved abusive language and one involved the neighbor getting into a vehicle and following a parent and their children down the road. Shortly after the second of these encounters, the neighbor erected a no trespassing sign and a second sign with a vulgar message on RMF Property. These three, rapidly occurring, last straws spurred the RMF into more aggressive action.
In the words of Robert Frost “Good fences make good neighbors.” If in our reticence to offend, the RMF has been too passive, we have now taken steps to rectify the situation. We first hired a surveyor. They were able to verify the property line in question and provided updated maps of the boundary. The RMF then installed Ragged Mountain Foundation property markers on our side of the relevant property line and along our significant Andrews St. frontage. Furthermore, with the boundary verified, the RMF retained legal counsel to defend against any future challenges.
Fortunately, further challenges from the neighbor have not been reported and the vulgar sign has since disappeared. This is an ideal situation from the standpoint of the RMF. We don’t hold grudges and we certainly do not want to be in conflict with an abbuting property owner. We want to be good neighbors, quiet neighbors. The RMF would rather build bridges than fences. That said, we at the RMF will never compromise on our one core value, “...the property shall remain open.”
By Matthew Conroy
