Requesting a Little Respect
I live in Dixmont Maine on about 180 acres; half of it’s in Troy. I am also very
much Native American and need the deep woods and it’s beautiful silence as much as do
the other wild heart beats around this land that live here with me. I started my college
career in 1991. Put that on hold for a beautiful baby boy. Started college back up again
after he was three, had a near fatal car accident with him 12 years ago on my way to
school and work. I was enrolled full-time and managed to finish two of the courses
through the recovery, which took eight alternating surgeries between us. Seventeen days
in ICU. He was four and a half. I needed to rebuild our lives, found this beautiful land
with no cuts in it’s boundaries and decided to take it out of the hands of developers and
design an off-grid home in the middle of it.
What I didn’t expect was that certain local and unlocal people still felt that they
had a right to continue doing whatever it was they where doing before I bought it. To
include and not limited to; hunting in droves (right near our home) driving the deer,
cutting wood for their homes, trapping beaver out of the bog, fishing in the bog, mudding
with trucks in the bog etc. Now even though this may sound really fun and all, most of it,
is impacting to the natural eco system. With a little formal education you can see that it
was occurring at a level that translated into a lack of respect. The natural eco systems
can’t speak for itself, that’s why we have state agencies to keep that in check and it is
commonly regulated swaying to the benefit of mankind.
I think most people feel uncomfortable making requests in the name of respect,
like asking someone to please not smoke in your car or around your children. This seems
usually because they don’t want any confrontation so they just don’t say anything. I feel
it is a basic common knowledge that not everyone is going to value the same things or
even reflect on life in the same perspectives, but there are some boundaries that need to
exist and it would seem that this may be lacking a little in some. In one of my
professional studies we ask this question to bring clarity to that; “ Is any one infringing
on my rights? Am I infringing on anyone’s rights.” This serves as a good guide for
pulling it back into perspective. Then you have the laws, and in my case specifically, a
road that has been discontinued prior to September 1965 and does not have a public
record of a retained “public throughway” filed with the clerk of that said municipality,
then there isn’t one. Besides that, it seems unreasonable for a town to grant public access
on a road that is maintained with private funds with or without filed documentation of
public access. And NO, dirt is not cheap! That expression is obviously out of date. I
quickly learned that this is a widespread common issue.
One individual was hunting across from my home without permission back in the
fall of 2003. The land had been posted to notify all of these changes, but I guess he
didn’t notice them. I asked him to respect the new ownership and that it was in residential
status now. He left seemingly upset. Most people have been very understanding and I
thank them for that. In the summer of 2004, all the sudden four-wheeler signs show up on
the road that I maintain. I called the town and they said the new four-wheeler club asked
for permission. I asked them, what about my landowner rights, how come I did not
receive notice, and what about the huge salamander breeding pool sitting 100’ from the
bog?” I brought all my materials down to the town meeting and to my surprise the very
person who got upset for being asked to leave when hunting on my posted residential
land was the same person who started the new four-wheeler club in Troy Maine. He said
it was too bad for the salamanders because it was in the path and the beaver dam, he
grinned and said he would just tare that right out. Mind you he said this right in front of
the board of selectmen. I think it is important to mention that at the time he was doing all
this, he had a “Private Drive” sign at the end of his road. Funny, he took it down shortly
after; somebody must have stated the obvious to him or something.
Well, ironically I had just graduated with my Bachelors degree in Behavioral
Sciences and had enrolled in the Masters degree of Public Administration. This all started
pouring information and channels to that information right in front of me, (statutes and
laws that govern theses activities). I soon realized that the bullying I was experiencing
was unauthorized and illegal process had occurred. I then wrote the proper letters, sent
them out certified providing the legal language in statute telling them I was removing the
signs on their behalf and dropping them off at the town office for their convenience to
pick them up. I was at my internship position and my husband calls me up and states,
Carolyn, the signs are up again”.
I got online, looked up the four-wheeler club in Troy called the President of the
club which was a very young woman, (niece to the other guy) and told her that notices
had been sent out in a legal manner and that a legal response was now required, that there
are statutes and laws that have to be acknowledged and that the DOC has been contacted
to step into this matter. Honestly, I do have better things to be doing with my time.
I make medicines here in these woods; I have walked these woods with huge
footsteps walking with me on the inside of the tree lines. I stopped one time and invited
the presence to take a closer look, it creped in close under a large evergreen and I spoke,
“you called me here, you know why I’m here, and now respect is yours as it is mine. We
live here together and I thank you for that, for sharing your home, you are welcome to
come down to the house and take a look at our home”. The next morning those huge
prints where all around the house and one right on the front door well. Sometimes the
most valuable words are unspoken. I had a forester come on out and walk for two hours
on this land with me. His advice was, Carolyn, you have the healthiest most beautiful
mixed growth I’ve seen in a long time. I wouldn’t do anything to it except selective
cutting when the land needs it as you go to keep it healthy, and with everything else that
is going on around you with hard cutting, your land will serve as a way to reseed that
land again.” Sounded like intelligent information to me.
My eleven-year-old daughter has a four-wheeler, we got a couple to be able to
work this land and get around it quicker if we needed to. She knows to stay on our land or
the neighbors when their young son comes down and wants her to go riding around. I’d
prefer they go hiking with her cell phone in a backpack. Kids these days are different but
my kids usually respect my wishes, yet she was found by a warden in the town pit this
spring (which is very unsafe now) and she was specifically told to stay out of there and
only on the adjoining land of her friends. Well, she is not perfect, don’t expect her to be,
but she can’t ride her four-wheeler anymore, Period. She said they kept going there and
she didn’t know how to stop them. I reminded her that she was taught to think for herself
and to turn and come home when that line is crossed, that her friends would figure it out.
I really don’t care for the sound of them or dirt bikes, neither does the other neighbor.
What happened to kids and bicycles? The car accident ruined that for me, but I still hike
and snowshoe and the kids and dogs go with us and you can hear the beauty of those
woods, see and feel what you are a part of. My grandmother always told me there is a
positive in any negative if you look hard enough. So far I’ve always been able to find it. I
never even wanted to drive when I was younger, I enjoyed walking too much, you get to
see and observe much more.
Point is, I’m not sure how long this individual is going keep loosing sleep over a
¾ mile section of road that never was an established trail, especially when there has
always been a trail going up and around through the town forest which my family and I
have never disturbed from use of the townspeople even though we still maintain a portion
of the road that is publicly used. I feel what I’m doing out here is the right thing to be
doing and the wildlife really just need a quiet resting ground to continue in their
existence, I can only see bad things happening to us and our health if we keep infringing
upon forested woods like this. I feel like a baby-sitter and a voice that wasn’t here before.
I have had livestock out here ever since I’ve been here, and have never lost one to
wildlife; you think that might be a case of mutual respect? Most people understand where
I’m coming from and yes, respect it. My medicines are not something that I just throw
together; certain things need to be in alignment. I don’t understand why he won’t just
leave us alone; I’m not out bullying or bothering him on his land where he pays his taxes.
I pay a significant amount of taxes in Troy, home school my kids and maintain my road,
Dixmont maintains the rest and I pay taxes there too. Is there something else I should be
doing?
Respectfully Submitted,
Carolyn R. Dodge
www.conscious-possibilities.org
P.O. Box 44
Dixmont, Maine 04932