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I can run a power line anywhere. The best [and most advised] is to go in 100' to a gravel RV pad and a power pole with a 200 amp breaker box. Then run underground to your home. This is what I did. I don't like overhead wires.
Agreed that this is the best way to go. Very clean looking installation and generally the most problem free as well.
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But if you were running overhead wires between trees it could get 'bad' in a wind storm.
Plus it is against state electrical code as well as the national electrical code. The power company would more than likely disconnect the service if they saw this arraignment. They wouldn't hook it up at all if it was set like this when they came originally. If you are talking about attaching to the trees themselves (Don't laugh, I have seen it tried MANY times over the past 26 years in the field.) Code enforcement or not, UT or not, all electrical installations in the state has to meet the code at time of installation.
If talking about setting poles, and running the service drop through the woods, that is an expensive nightmare for the original installation and a headache forever after.
We put a wide spot on my driveway, a motorhome pad. Next to it is a power pole with a breaker box and 200 amp service. To get from the transformer at the pavement to the private pole, I was told that I needed a clear path ran diagonally through the woods, eight foot wide.
So I do have a power line suspended through a very narrow break in the treetops.
Not attached to any trees [that would be dumb], but running from the Bangor Power pole with transformer to my pole.
From there my power is ran on the ground through pipe. Waiting for a day when I get a trench dug. On that day, both my power and phone lines with both be underground, from my pole, to my house.
I do have one acre with-drawn from treegrowth.
However even if I did not have anything outside of treegrowth status, I could have done this. One private pole with a breaker, and underground lines alongside a gravel driveway, leading through the woods.
However do keep in mind that your driveway needs a loop, where UPS trucks can do a turn around.
MaineWriter cautions:
"Steve (he's a licensed forester) says to be careful of tree growth and small acreage such as 13 acres. There's a minimum amount of acreage required in tree growth. Thirteen acres doesn't leave much wiggle room."
Some towns are getting greedy. They claim roads are not compatable with tree growth. Don't like their ruling? Sue the town and see how far you get and what it costs.
The more that I have read about 'Treegrowth', the more that I like it.
In preparing my building permit application for LURC, I did walk my property lines with a GPS and loaded those points into my PC. So I have a scale map of my property. It includes my house site and driveway.
Because it was all done with a GPS, I was able to give exact distances to the road, each property boundary and the river.
After I sent it in, LURC called me to complement my application for completeness and ease of readability. He said that they had never received a site-plan printed out to scale before.
So later when I applied to have one acre removed from 'Treegrowth' status I was prepared to give the tax assessor a map showing exactly where this one acre lays.
She does not want it. My one acre could be scattered anywhere on my property.
Is that weird?
Would it be different if I were in an organized township?
Once you take your building site out of tree growth......can you pretty much build anything you want? and land scape anyway you want?....for that particular lot are there restrictions because of the river?
How is property taxed in the unorganized township?
Once you take your building site out of tree growth......can you pretty much build anything you want? and land scape anyway you want?....for that particular lot are there restrictions because of the river?
My 'one acre' of land, I can do most anything.
Building stuff I think that your better off having a building permit. $75 gets you a building permit good for 5 years.
My one building permit includes our house, an equipment barn, a livestock barn, and a guest cabin.
I have not heard of any landscape restrictions.
NMLM may know of some landscape restrictions.
From the river itself, I have to stay back 250 foot, for permanent construction.
Within 250 foot everything must be mostly non-visible from the water, and nothing set in concrete. Wooden benches, tables gazebos are okay, but back a ways or low so the brush don't make them stand out from the water. board-walk walkways are okay too, floating or with posts in the ground as guides.
They do make a big deal about bushes. Grasses nearest the water edge, then space then low bushes, the taller bushes. You can actually landscape a great deal within 250' of a river, but sitting in a boat it should look like layers of shrubs. and hide anything man made.
Also within 250' is a deal about trees. You must count the trees, and measure their diameters. Add up all of their diameters. Then you can only cut down 10% of the tree community diameters in one year.
Did I say that right? 100 trees all of 1' dia, you can cut down 10. If you had 500 trees all of different diameters, then it gets more goofy. Just remember 10% of the overall diameters from the group.
From our river bank is a raised sandbar with old growth trees, maybe 50 foot wide, then our creek wanders through. There is no set-back from the creek, only from the river. But by the time you get up out of the creek's floodplain you are already 250 foot back from the river. So we really have not bothered with doing anything at the riverbank.
We have neighbors who have a floating boardwalk from dry land across the marsh [creek] and to the river bank.
"How is property taxed in the unorganized township?"
Our mil rate is set by the county. Penobscot county's mil rate is 0.0842
Our annual taxes for 42 acres of treegrowth was $47. Now that I took 1 acre out of treegrowth, that 1 acre is taxed at close to the purchase price. My taxes are now $800 for that one acre of land, plus $45 for the 41 acres of treegrowth.
"Can I have a tar driveway?"
A driveway that is on land not in 'Treegrowth' can be tarred, or concrete, or paved.
In treegrowth it should be dirt or gravel or bark.
"Can I have a field "in tree growth" that I mow?"
[do you like to mow? Do you smoke crack?]
Treegrowth may include a lot of clearings. Random shapes and random sizes. Since the Maine theory of woodlot management is to never plant trees, but to wait for nature to re-plant, it may take centuries for the right species of tree to be planted by nature. In the mean time, we can chop down, or agent orange any other species waiting for nature to get it right [to conform to our desires].
Many of our clearings have berries growing.
If you cleared off a rectangular area, fenced it and began plowing, it would be obvious from satellite photos that you were farming, and clearly not growing trees.
However if you broadcast seed, not in rows, but just openly broadcast them, in areas. That is very natural looking.
I have broadcast sugar beets for example.
I also have a scythe for cutting grasses, bundling them for livestock bedding and / or feed. I can cut grasses, or livestock can knock down grasses, nobody cares.
The only folks that would be looking is the tax assessor, who would be expected to watch the satellite photos available on-line. If he sees obvious signs of farming or non-treegrowth management, I should think that a letter to you would be appropriate.
Otherwise you can do anything you want to do in a clearing. [just don't build structures, and don't plant in rows.
Thanks so Much for all of the info..No I am not "smoking crack" lol. My ideal situation would be to have as little land out of tree growth for my home (obviously) but still be able to have a large cleared area around the home. I love fields.. The whole thing sounds very intersting to me.
P.S. Even with a 250 ft set back...........could there be issues with parts of your home being visable from the water........how would you fix that?
... P.S. Even with a 250 ft set back...........could there be issues with parts of your home being visable from the water........how would you fix that?
Can you imagine that when I was working on my Horticulture degree, I had to take courses on landscape design? It really is not my forte' [my mind is too much the engineer, rather than the artiste']
I have a brochure from the state that explains their ideal for low plants near the water, to taller brush further back, with a backdrop of trees. That is their ideal. Nature rarely does that.
If you were at exactly 250 foot set-back, then framed your house with tall shrubs on either side to break-up the sharp lines of the sides of your house. That would disguise your house silhouette.
Some folks like tall shrubs between each window, I would prefer freestanding trellises a yard or more from the house covered with vines. Grapes maybe if you don't mind the bugs. Those trellises could be level with the bottoms of your windows, and shoot up taller to be level with your eaves between the windows. Kind of shaped like a parapet. The open slots in the trellis to match the field-of-view from each window.
Being away from the house a yard or more, keeps the vines from messing with your house siding. And still allows you to have a wrap-around deck outside.
From the river, looking at a house, if you cover the sharp lines so there is no
silhouetted 'shape-of-a-house' visible. You would only see windows between vegetation. An extended roof over your deck would prevent glare from the windows.
A few random narrow trees placed near the river, makes folks down there focus on them more so than on the horizon. Whereas from the house perspective a few narrow trees with a backdrop of the river, the trees would not present a block in view at all.
As to your desire for open cleared or mowed fields. I don't know about that so much. Clearings are fine. But fencing, or even straight lines, would all indicate that you were not managing a woodlot.
We are working on clearing the low growth on our forest floor. There are livestock that love to eat that brush, and some trees are okay with that. It gives greater visibility looking through the trees further. And there are some crops even that will grow well in that setting. Working hand-in-hand with a Forestry Management Plan.
I have open broadcast seeds in some of our clearings. And some of our clearings have berries growing, which we have gleaned. But our clearings tend to be shoulder high growth come fall. And are not well manicured lawns. I can broadcast seed, in fact 'over-seeding' and it does not preclude nature from taking over that clearing and planting trees whenever she wants to. So I am still well within a Forestry Management Plan.
The only legitimate usage for a clearing in a woodlot, that I can think of, would be for your own tree nursery. It really goes against the grain of Maine Foresters, but it would be allowed.
Collect pine cone once a year and store them. Harvest the nuts the following year and plant them in potting soil in a small greenhouse. Trees are very slow growing, so once it is set-up your time managing it would be minimal. A once a day sprinkling from a timer, should be fine. Once a year move seedlings from the greenhouse out into your field and plant them in rows. You would only be doing the transplanting once a year, so your time involvement would be minimal. Then you could offer the trees for sale, which would keep them from ever growing big as they would be disappearing from your nursery. Or you could transplant them to other areas of your property once a year.
Personally I have considered cloning trees in a greenhouse, then putting them out in rows in a field to gain size, before transplanting. This method is more involved and you need to have a background in it, but you produce trees faster. I have cloned plants before as a hobby.
I am at a loss for any other methods of what you could really do with a clearing, and still be managing a woodlot.
OK so if you wanted to "do things by the book" and have some of your land in tree growth and some as farmland, I assume you can do this. Is farmland taxed much differently than managed tree growth?
OK so if you wanted to "do things by the book" and have some of your land in tree growth and some as farmland, I assume you can do this. Is farmland taxed much differently than managed tree growth?
I did not mean to imply that I was doing anything outside of what is technically legal. In my reading of what is allowed in 'Treegrowth' and within my FMP, everything that I am doing is completely legal.
It is my intention to help others to remain entirely within the legal and allowed activities.
Under 'Treegrowth':
if land were 100% soft wood it's assessed value would be $100/acre,
if land were 100% hard wood it's assessed value would be $91/acre,
if land were mixed hard / soft wood it's assessed value would be $86/acre.
Maine Revenue Services: Property Tax - (broken link)
Under 'Farmland' status: land can be assesses at any thing from $100 per acre to $1150 per acre.
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PASTURE LAND ...Land devoted to the production of forage plants consumed by animals. This includes grazing land, hay, ensilage, corn for ensilage and any other crops grown for forage.
$325 per acre suggested value - observed range $100 - $525.
CROP LAND ...Land used for field grown crops such as a typical Maine potato farm. This would include usual crops grown in rotation with potatoes - corn for grain, small grains, lupines, broccoli, etc.
$400 per acre suggested value - observed range $150 - $600.
BLUEBERRY LAND ...Land devoted to production of wild low-bush blueberries.
$400 per acre suggested value - observed range $200 - $800.
HORTICULTURAL LAND I (EDIBLE) ...Land used for intensive vegetable and small fruit production, market gardening, strawberries, raspberries, high-bush blueberries, etc.
$450 per acre suggested value - observed range $350 - $650.
HORTICULTURAL LAND II (ORNAMENTAL) ...Land used for production of planted and cultivated Christmas trees, flowers, sod, shrubs, trees and general nursery stock.
$550 per acre suggested value - observed range $425 - $850.
ORCHARD LAND ...Land devoted to the growth and cultivation of trees bearing edible fruit. There should be a minimum stocking density equivalent to 60 trees per acre.
$450 per acre suggested value - observed range $350 - $800. (For standard/full size varieties)
$650 per acre suggested value - observed range $450 - $1150. (For dwarf and semi-dwarf varieties)
5 acre minimum,
must produce a Gross income of $2,000 per acre for 3 out of 5 years,
and every fifth year you must report your gross income from that land to the state assessor.
Another status that you could look at is "Openland"
"All ordinary open space land is eligible for a reduction of 20% off the standard value. "
"The tract must be preserved or restricted in use to provide a public benefit by conserving scenic resources; enhancing public recreation opportunities; promoting game management; or preserving wildlife or wildlife habitat"
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