Neighbor isuses

[dodge man]

I’m going to speak up and say the wetlands is not your concern. You could turn him in with an anonymous call but that is kind of underhanded. If the trees won’t hit your buildings I would probably worry about it when it happens.

 

[MossRoad]

If the wetlands are upstream of his place, he has reason to be concerned. We all know wetlands filter pollutants, lessen silting, lessen flooding, etc... In the area that the OP and I live in, the water table is extremely high, and it's easy to affect your neighbor without realizing it. Then there's the wildlife aspects. We're all stewards of the land.

 

[two_bit_score]

If the wetlands are upstream of his place, he has reason to be concerned. We all know wetlands filter pollutants, lessen silting, lessen flooding, etc... In the area that the OP and I live in, the water table is extremely high, and it's easy to affect your neighbor without realizing it. Then there's the wildlife aspects. We're all stewards of the land.

WOTUS has been a pain in the rear for many landowners when it's taken to extreme lengths. Kinda getting the idea here that what this is really all about is a way ti hassel the OP's neighbor for some reason and it is beginning to sound like you are in on it also.

 

[two_bit_score]

I’m going to speak up and say the wetlands is not your concern. You could turn him in with an anonymous call but that is kind of underhanded. If the trees won’t hit your buildings I would probably worry about it when it happens.

I fully agree.

Beginning to sound like the OP is using the pretext of "We're all stewards of the land. " as a way to cause problems for a neighbor.

 

[SuperiorLakeEffect]

I concur with most folks that you might be over-reacting to the tree issue- however it's not necessarily inappropriate to talk to them about the wetlands issue.

Our property contains some wetlands that are part of the headwaters for a popular trout stream here. In fact, we're bordered on two sides by a conservation easement intended in part to protect them. When we bought it, plenty of neighbors reached out to learn our intentions for the land and pointed out an issue or two on it that might be causing problems downstream. We took care of the issues and take pride in doing our part to protect this neighborhood resource.

So I guess the question is what outcome are you looking for? Do you just want to bust their chops for breaking The Rules, or is there something legitimate at stake here?

 

[MossRoad]

WOTUS has been a pain in the rear for many landowners when it's taken to extreme lengths. Kinda getting the idea here that what this is really all about is a way ti hassel the OP's neighbor for some reason and it is beginning to sound like you are in on it also.

From what I understand, I live about 9-10 miles from the OP. Never met him. Don't know where his house is. Just the general area. But we both live in the same county under the same rules, so we have that in common. He has mentioned on TBN in the past that he has a county maintained drainage ditch on his property. So do I. So we have that in common. He mentioned that his neighbor has a federally protected wetland on his property. I have a federally protected wetland on my property. So I'm familiar with what you can and cannot do on your own property in regards to those wetlands.

As I mentioned, if someone upstream of the aquifer that you are on does something to the aquifer, it can affect you drastically, so that makes it your business. We have a surface aquifer here. Pretty much all of this part of northern Indiana is similar, not just this county. So it's up to all of us that live here to protect that aquifer and question when something seems out of place, as it can effect not just me, but everyone downstream from me.

 

[TheMan419]

I concur with most folks that you might be over-reacting to the tree issue- however it's not necessarily inappropriate to talk to them about the wetlands issue.

Our property contains some wetlands that are part of the headwaters for a popular trout stream here. In fact, we're bordered on two sides by a conservation easement intended in part to protect them. When we bought it, plenty of neighbors reached out to learn our intentions for the land and pointed out an issue or two on it that might be causing problems downstream. We took care of the issues and take pride in doing our part to protect this neighborhood resource.

So I guess the question is what outcome are you looking for? Do you just want to bust their chops for breaking The Rules, or is there something legitimate at stake here?

the issue with the trees is who will be responsible for any cost of clean up if they fall. Wether that be just the cost of cutting it up and removing debris or the cost if it does hit my barn. Indiana provides if the neighbor is not on notice there is a good chance it will just be an act of God and thus my problem to clean up. These neighbors also have a row of trees on the front of their property lining the road. They do not take care of them and every so often one of them falls and takes out the power line. Power company finally in the last couple weeks came and took them all down. It was sad to see them go as I would suspect some of them could have been saved and been beautiful trees for many years to come.

Also depending on how those trees fall they could end up temporarily blockign the ditch and that would cause a HUGE problem for me and several neighbors.

The wetlands issue is more thorny. Not just a desire to give the neighbors grief for breaking "the rules". The additional water into the ditch has the potential to flood some of our property, although I am not 100% certain it will. That additional water load could end up coming into my basement. Time will tell on that.

As Moss pointed out our water table is VERY high. My basement is 6 feet deep and it gets water in it with some frequency. So anything that is going to change the water table around here is a big deal.

The property to our west was vacant when we bought. New owners there are in process of building a home. On their own they came over to discuss with us how they were having the property graded in such a way as to not flood us out. They have a pond on their property that has an outlet into a different ditch. They are grading in such a way that most of the water flow will go into that pond.

This portion of Indiana used to be a huge swamp. Think like the Everglades. Then most of it was drained in the mid to late 1800's for farming use. We have county maintained and privately maintained drainage going all over the place in this county, and through most of the northern half of the state. Water rights in terms of fresh water use are not anywhere as big a deal as it is out west.... it is more of a desire to get RID of too much water that drives our water decisions/actions around here.

 

[MossRoad]

When the trees fall it will likely be in the ROW and likely in the ditch.

Yes this is the issue i talked to the drainage board about. They did not come out. Just talked to them over the phone.

The county checks ours, it seems, after every heavy rain, as we are upstream of a large culvert under a major road. If that gets plugged, the road could theoretically flood over, then wash out. Highly unlikely, but the past few large rains have caused acres to flood several feet deep VS I've never seen the ditch overflow it's banks in 30 years. There's a secondary culvert that's 5' higher and 30' over from the active culvert to act as a safety I guess. The water went through that for the first time in 30 years last year, twice. So they keep an eye on it.

The trees you are concerned about could stand for you entire lifetime, or could come down at the first heavy rain. Who knows? As long as they can't hit your buildings, are they going to damage anything else between the time they fall and the time they are removed? Have you ever seen the ditch back up or turn into a raging torrent? If they fall, will they plug the ditch or just make things messy until the water drains? And if things flood into your property, do you have flood insurance? Most people don't. I don't. We have no buildings on our property, and if we did, the water would have to com up 40' from South Bend to Kankakee, Illinois before it reached. Things like that would guide my concerns on the trees.

As for the wetlands, talk to the same folks you talked to about the other issue and follow their guidance.

 

[SuperiorLakeEffect]

Afraid this might then get ugly. Friends were in a somewhat similar situation where neighbor's changes to the land caused flooding issue for them. Talking to the neighbors and various government agencies got them nowhere. They elected to move (not because of the neighbor entirely, but I'm sure it contributed).

I'd talk to an experienced excavator- we use one who has a background in civil engineering. He had some great insights into managing run off on our property. They might have some good ideas on managing flooding. If this is common in your area, they've probably seen it before.

 

[Fuddy1952]

To me all of this started when:
"Recently we had to have a tree taken down on our property. The arborist who came out to do the work happens to be a family friend.
His guess is they are not tall enough to hit any of our buildings when they fall."
The way I see it, if you had taken your tree down you wouldn't have thought about the two concerns, i.e., falling trees and draining wetlands.
You can't/shouldn't police the world. That friend planted a seed which wouldn't have happened if he hadn't called attention to it.
We have new neighbors. The guy who was there 45 years had cattle, spring fed lake, etc. I would sometimes swim or fish in lake.
New neighbors got government intervention so everything fenced off, lake is unused (God forbid swimming in a lake cow/horse manure can get in neighbor told me). So their animals stay in pens.
Our horses run the pastures, rain washes poop into the creek. I called the county agency, telling them it doesn't make sense (fencing off here to the Atlantic?). "One foot at a time" she told me.
It's not that I don't care, but wife and I did the best thing ever for planet Earth by not having kids!
I would move your thoughts to something else. Think about how all this started and why cause trouble?