I'll have to tell my son this as tell county is proposing not only to widen the road, but also install a bike trail! This will be across not only his but everyone's land!!!
After a bad rainstorm last year, I noted that the telephone company had ran about a quarter mile of temporary line to my neighbors place from a junction box in front of my property but located in the ROW. That was all well and good, but that line stopped me from felling some 90+ foot trees. I figured, okay, I'll wait until they get things taken care of. A couple of months later some company that contracts with the telephone company put a junction box on my property without my permission. They also removed a survey stake, an axle, that marked the corner of my property, had been a marker there for at least 100 years. So now, if I fell those trees, there might be a chance I would destroy that junction box. The box itself is maybe a foot and a half off the states right of way. There was no reason to locate the box where they put it, especially since it didn't service my home. They could have placed it the other side of the axle which was only a few feet away and but no, they had to place it on my side and up on my property. If that's not enough, every time the state plow comes through to fill potholes (formed by their negligence in not leaving drainage on the other side of the road) they keep widening the road. What was once 8 to 9 feet of lawn that I maintained has been cut down to about 5 feet making the road better than 18 feet across when the rest of the road averages 12 and 1/2 feet across. Every time the plow comes through it gets wider and wider, and each time, vehicles decide it is the road way and drive on it leaving deep ruts. But it doesn't end there. When the state sends some guy with a sickle mower for overgrown weeds in the ditches, they have been coming onto my property as well. One day I'm afraid they will come through, probably this year, and end up cutting my young trees with that mower. Well, enough is enough. This weekend or no later than Monday I'm moving the road back, creating the proper drainage and putting in about 25 fiberglass reflective snow markers at the edge of my side of the road. They might have the right of way, but I maintain that section to keep the rest of my property looking nice. And I refuse to have some plow driver who obviously can't see or is drunk mess it up. I will be dealing with the telephone company shortly!
On that mower, you should be able to put up a sign telling them you do not want things cut and they have to obey it.
I might have to question if they would be able to see the sign, after all, they haven't been able to see where the actual road is. Can you tell I don't think to highly of them at this point? What would the wording for such a sign be?
The state, county town and so on may own a right of way, but that does not, in most cases, give them full ownership of the land within the right of way, that still belongs to the individual property owner. Ask first.
You have to ask before removing wood. The good part of asking (aside from doing the right thing) is that there is a fair chance you'll be offered not only the wood along the road, but maybe a lot more. The last time I asked about wood taken down by the power company I was also given permission to cut what will probably be five years worth of additional wood. This is all from a year less than an acre. The exception I make to asking permission before taking wood is wood that is stacked at the curb. Some of the townships around here will chip and haul away brush, and sometimes there is potential firewood in the pile. This is fair game in my opinion. I think it is legally fair game too, but I am not certain.
RCBS has it right. Simply "Do not mow" or in your case, "Do not cut brush or tree branches" might even be better.
