Posting Our Land

Now that we own 30 acres in a somewhat remote location in the Adirondack Park we started to think about the "what if's." What if someone is on it and gets hurt. What if a snowmobiler goes off the trail. What if someone hunts on it. What if someone goes on it without us knowing.....ugh. There were just too many things to think about so I started to do some research about the laws regarding vacant land, ownership, and trespassing in New York. Of course we wanted to be friendly with our future neighbors, and we certainly wanted the snowmobile club to continue using the trail running through our land but we just didn't know where to start or how to go about posting signs on our land properly. What I found in my research was quite interesting and not what I expected at all.

Here in New York the trespassing laws are controlled by the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) and this is what I discovered:

• Posting is not required to protect landowners against liability.
• Posting is not required to make trespassing illegal.
• Should someone trespass on the land they can be prosecuted under the law and if you see them and ask them to leave, they must leave immediately. You are responsible for reporting them to the local environmental conservation officer (click the link to find your region in New York State).
• Should a person known to you continue to trespass you are responsible for sending a certified letter with respect to the boundaries and warning against tresspass.
• Land owners are also responsible to report poachers and polluters. Remember there are seasons for hunting and, well, dumping any type of garbage is just wrong! Land owners should call the DEC to report this at 1-844-DEC-ECOS (1-844-332-3267).
• Should you choose to post your land it will generally only work if you use signage that is conspicuous every 100 feet or so along all boundaries, however you are not required to do this.
• But, If you do choose to post your land you need to know that there are regulations and requirements with respect to sign size, what is prohibited, and it must contain your name and address (contact information). Do your research for your area so you know exactly what you need to do.
• You also have the right to give people permission to use your land.  You can choose to add a sticker to your posted signs that say "Ask Permission." The NYSDEC provides these stickers for FREE. They come with cards to fill out for each person that is granted permission. You keep a portion, and the permitted party keeps a portion. This is a way to share your land with others in a controlled fashion. Download a printable version of the cards here. Check out this pdf brochure about the DEC's Ask Permission program and how to call to get FREE stickers.  If you don't want to download the pdf's you can go directly to the DEC's website here: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/8371.html​​

​We considered doing this, but chose not to because we felt it would open a can of worms with everyone calling for permission and then how would we choose who can, and who cannot use it? We decided to just keep the use to family and the local snowmobile club during the winter. Simple and much easier to keep track of.

We Chose To Post...
In New York State, if you choose to post your land, the signs must meet the following requirements:

• Signs must be a minimum of 11" x 11"
• They must have the name and address of the owner.
• They must state the word "POSTED" or warn against entry for specific purposes
• All wordage on the sign must cover a minimum space of 80 square inches or 9" x 9" of the sign
• One sign must be set on each side of the protected area and on each side of all corners.
• Signs shall be a maximum of 660' feet apart and along the boundaries of the protected area
• Signs should be conspicuous and high enough and spaced closely enough to be seen without turning the land into an 'eyesore.'
• Illegible or missing signs should be replaced once a  year

Since the land was already posted with appropriate signs along the road, we just left them as is and added our name, address, and phone number to the ones we could reach without a ladder. 

We also purchased enough signs to post a minimum of every 100' all the way around the entire property. With a border measurement (including both sides the back and the front) of approximately 4,780 feet we purchased 48 signs (they come in 12 packs). We glued the signs to a thick plastic backing as support. It was scrap that we had laying around so that didn't cost us anything.

Since there is a snowmobile trail on our land and we have an agreement with the local club, we also purchased three special signs you see to add to the locations where there are entrances onto our land and at the junction where the trail splits in three directions. We did however add that this was for the 'snowmobile trail' to the signs. Hopefully this works and people respect our property when we are not there.

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How We Posted...
We hiked the entire border of the land and posted it! The first half we did with the company of family and then Rich and I finished the rest on our own.  This was a great way to get to know and become familiar with the border of our land. We chose rather large trees that looked like they would be around for a while and galvanized nails to post the signs. The signs were posted facing out, away from our property, to prevent trespassers. 

Check out our update on our posted signs in the YouTube video below! Please subscribe to our channel too :-)

Products purchased through Amazon (affiliate links):

• Thin Plastic Posted Signs
• ​Heavy Duty Posted Signs
• Respect Property Owner Signs

Check out our other posts about our future homestead!
​Thanks for visiting and have a great day :-)
Sincerely,

Link to the DEC in New York for more information:
​ https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/8371.html