NH Thieves Raiding Woodpiles For Firewood (2014, move, donated)

[399083453]

Police in New Hampshire says it’s happened at least twice this month. Heavy piles of firewood have been stolen from people’s property.

Link

[buck naked]

People saw the thieves blatantly steal the wood from the Richardsons in broad daylight. Act like you're supposed to be taking the wood and nobody questions it.

Plenty of free wood lying on the side of the road. No need to steal.

[lady fern]

Originally Posted by buck naked

Plenty of free wood lying on the side of the road. No need to steal.

Agreed. I see plenty of cut wood from the recent tree trimmings along the highways. We took what had been cut and left on the edge of our property. I know my town has donated wood for the needy. Plenty of alternatives to being a thief.

[UpnorthHere]

Wood cut on the road at the edge of your property is probably yours anyway, and anyone else taking it (without your permission) actually is a thief. Some people also get a USFS firewood permit, good for picking over a specific location on the national forest.

[NHForester]

Originally Posted by UpnorthHere

Wood cut on the road at the edge of your property is probably yours anyway, and anyone else taking it (without your permission) actually is a thief. Some people also get a USFS firewood permit, good for picking over a specific location on the national forest.

Exactly correct. That wood belongs to the landowner who owns the frontage unless the town has specifically purchased the road right of way which is usually not the case.

[cowbell76]

Originally Posted by NHForester

Exactly correct. That wood belongs to the landowner who owns the frontage unless the town has specifically purchased the road right of way which is usually not the case.

Yup, I was going to say that, too. Many towns and/or the state do have rights of way along the road (not always noted on the deed) but much of the trimming being done now is beyond the right of way. On a typical two-lane road the right of way on each side is no wider than one lane of the road, center line to white outer line. That's not actually very wide. In any case (although I'm sure this is not always true) wood cut along the frontage would often be considered owned by the landowner of the rest of the land. People may have no control over what's done in the right of way, but I BELIEVE the underlying property is still owned by the adjacent property owner, as with other rights of way. The wood's often not left unless the owner has specifically requested it to be left. I'm seeing huge piles left in some areas, and whole trees completely removed, save for a little sawdust, in others. (Just a note, too... my road has a town right of way and this is noted on my deed, but when the Asplundh crew wanted to remove a big tree in the right of way they actually notified us.)

My problem hasn't been wood pile theft, but theft of entire mature trees cut and removed from my woods! The nerve.