Tresspassing problem near Mitchell River

ELKIN — Property owners near this town at the southern tip of Surry County are just plain fed up with people not only trespassing on their land, but the activities that disturb the environment and the peace.

Ray Alberty has posted “No trespassing” signs all over his property that runs along the Mitchell River on N.C. 268, but that doesn’t seem to stop the stream of trespassers who frequent his property to ride four-wheelers, an off-road vehicle, or “mud-boggers” as he calls them.

Another property owner, Shawn Peet, who has to drive down the road that Alberty owns to get to his property, said that he is constantly finding couples “romantically involved,” mostly early in the morning. Peet has a cabin out in the woods down by the Mitchell River and he said sometimes there are so many cars parked side by side with people swimming in the river, he can’t get down to his log cabin.

Peet is a former hockey player from Canada who moved here for the tranquility of the isolated land. But that tranquility is being disrupted to the point that he feels angered toward the trespassers on the road to this cabin.

“I don’t think the people of Elkin have an idea what is going on down here. If your wife or husband is hard to find early in the morning, they might just be down here,” Peet said.

Peet and Alberty agree that the four-wheelers, or ATVs and others using the property are being disrespectful of the land. Not only are they destroying a natural habitat, but they are throwing trash out and breaking the law on their land.

They are considering erecting a permanent fence with a lock that only property owners can unlock.

Alberty said the land has been in his family for more than 100 years. He made his comments while driving on the property, passing by a sofa that someone had discarded on the side of the dirt road. He hopes to leave the land to his family when he is gone. But he doesn’t want it to be the way it is now.

“I don’t understand. When you pay taxes on your land, that is your land and your land only. It’s not for vigilante’s to take advantage of. It’s not public property and I don’t want them out here,” Alberty said.

As he walked up a path where four-wheelers have torn up the natural underbrush, he noticed fresh deer tracks in the red mud. He is concerned that the off-road vehicles are harming the environment.

“This natural overgrowth takes care of the land and the runoff into the river,” he said.

Surry County Sheriff Graham Atkinson said there are so many reports about ATVs riding on private land that it is hard to keep up with all of the complaints.

“It really does create a lot of hard feelings between neighbors,” said the sheriff.

Atkinson said the problem arises when parents buy their kids ATVs and then they don’t have any land on which to ride the vehicles.

“Kids will be kids and unfortunately, after they buy the ATVs the parents don’t supervise where the kids ride.”

He said he has had complaints of people riding their ATVs through hay fields and farms. They even get complaints about ATVs on state-owned roads, which is illegal. He said his office does handle some of those complaints, but those offenses are mainly up to the N.C. Highway Patrol to enforce.

Atkinson said his officers do have ATVs they ride to get out to places like Alberty’s and catch the trespassers, but he said people have to call let his office know about the problem.

Alberty’s land has a right-of-way that belongs to Duke Energy. Duke spokesperson Tim Pettit said that four-wheelers riding under and around the power poles is a definitely an issue for the company. He said it was mainly a safety issue because the four-wheelers loosen up the dirt around the poles which could potentially cause the poles to weaken and fall.

In the meantime Alberty and Peet said they are going to be on the lookout and they have the Sheriff’s Office number on speed dial.

Source: http://www.mtairynews.com/articles/2008/10/13/news/local_news/local03.txt

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