Kathleen, I am happy for you that you are moving to a new place, and I am glad it is fenced. Please do yourself a big, huge favor and get yourself a bunch of NO TRESPASSING signs and post them all around your property, and especially at the entrances to your land. Gate your driveway if at all possible.
My ranch is completely surrounded by National Forest, and has two entrances. Mountain bikers will leave established bike trails and come through my ranch knowing they are trespassing. They tear down the no trespassing signs they can reach, rip down fencing, and lie about it when confronted. They steal fruit from our orchard in season. They have broken into our pioneer cabin and outbuildings. I have had to replace the signs at their point of entry so often that I took my ATV down there, backed it up to a tree, and stood on it, on my tippy toes and put a sign up on the tree as high as I could, so the bikers couldn't reach it to tear it down. Still, I have a stack of signs handy for when they tear down the old ones.
The trail leading into that end of the property is quickly deteriorating, as it used to be a road that was carved out of a steep mountainside. About 40 years ago the Forest service gated the other end of the road, and never gave the former owners of our place a key, despite repeated requests. The road fell into terrible disrepair, with much of it falling down the cliff, and trees and boulders falling on it. Now it is only passable on foot or mountain bike, and I am looking forward to the day when it is gone completely, since that is where 90% of our trespassers enter the property.
We ran multiple strings of nasty rusty old barbed wire across it. We tied colorful strips of plastic construction tape to it so that it is clearly visible and nobody hurts themselves, and by the time they get to the barbed wire fence they have had to lift their bike over fallen logs and gone past at least three NO TRESPASSING signs.
At the barbed wire fence I have a large hand painted sign telling them that this is not the bike trail, and gives them instructions on how to get back to their trail.
If I find them on the ranch beyond this point, it is obvious that they intended to trespass. I have no qualms about having them arrested for criminal trespass.
I photographed it in case someone enters my land and tries to sue me when they injure themselves, or one of my animals injures them. I don't know how much weight it would carry in court if I were sued, but I can prove that they knew they were trespassing, and that they had to pass not only numerous signs, but take extraordinary measures to get over the logs and through the barbed wire fencing for the purpose of trespassing.
I live in California, and my state has enacted stricter laws on trespassing on farms and ranches. Farm thefts are at an all time high, and all thefts start with trespassing. We had a 24' flatbed trailer stolen a while back. It was on our ranch, behind a locked gate. The only way the thieves even knew it was there was that they had to have trespassed earlier, and scoped out what they wanted to steal.
They cut the electric company's lock from our gate. They replaced it with a look-alike lock of their own, so they could come and go as they pleased. They even locked the gate behind them when they left! They had to bring a truck equipped with a goose neck hitch in the bed for our trailer.
Then, they returned two nights later, while we were there. They tried to steal our propane tanks from beside the house, and they probably had our trailer with them to haul them with! One of them tripped in the dark right outside our bedroom, and yelled out. They took off immediately. I woke DH. He got dressed in the dark and got the shotgun and went out to check it out, but they were gone by the time he got there.
In the morning we could see their tire tracks, and when I went to fix breakfast, the stove wouldn't light. I checked the propane tanks and they had been turned off. Probably in preparation for stealing the tanks.
I take trespassing very seriously. I confront trespassers, and if they don't sass off, I make them leave via the same way they entered. I don't let them cross the land to the other exit, because they have long used my ranch to cut a couple of miles off the bike trail. If they have to backtrack, then they have added that couple of miles back onto their trip, both directions. They are less likely to try to take a shortcut through my place if they know they may run into me!
If they do sass off, I take their picture and call the sheriff.
Several have gone back to the Forest Service to complain about me, and have even tried to have me arrested for running them off my land. At the Forest Service Ranger's office they have a large map of the National Forest under glass on the counter, and the trespasser will point out where the confrontation occurred. My place, like all of the other private property on the map is white, and National Forest land appears as green. The ranger explains to the bikers that they were trespassing on private land, and that even the Forest Service doesn't enter private land without an invitation from the owner or a warrant. They show them the actual bike path, which never touches my property at all.
The local sheriff is a friend. We have given him a key to our gate. We let him hunt bear at our ranch. He will also check out the place when he is in the area. He always calls to get permission to enter the ranch. He has confronted several trespassers at our place as well.
I feel that having the property well posted and fenced keeps out the honest folks, and offers me some protection from the dishonest ones.
You said otherwise in the quote that I'll qoute again for you. Reading...or remembering what you said and NOT contradicting yourself: It's fundamental.
