Boundary Line Paint ??

[Magicman]

We ran out of paint Saturday while refreshing property lines.  I went by my Ace Hardware store this afternoon, and look what he had.  A gallon of exterior paint and just the right color colour......    I have found that latex paints work well for me.  If there is moisture on the tree, it doesn't matter.
 


Can't beat the price.....$5.00

[Ron Scott]

Looks good! Do you apply it with a brush or paint gun?

[Magicman]

Brush.  I even get a little on the tree.....

[240b]

highway marking paint, with lead if you can find it.. lasts 30+ years.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, but trees grow and shed bark. My last paint on my lines was in 2000 or 2001. They aren't faded but them little trees out grow the paint and if you put it off you soon loose sight of the lines.   I'll probably trim out some brush first with my brush saw. It's pretty well cleaned out but suckers come back, got just the tool, no bending.

[chain]

I have a debarker tool that I use to scrape bark off before applying paint. They don't make paint like they use to, I guess because the old paint was leaded. I still find paint marks from over 40yrs. ago that our Dad blazed and painted. They used a 'moline tractor' yellow enamel, a very rich color; when I find those old marks I preserve them making new blazes and applying an orange latex that hardly ever lasts more than four or five years.

[grassfed]

If I recall correctly you are not supposed to cut blaze marks on boundary trees unless you are a state approved surveyor. You can paint over old marks and paint on trees when the wire fence is the boundary and it is grown into the fence. The best thing you can do as a land owner is to paint and flag markers that were created or mentioned on a previous official survey. This is for Vermont other states might be different. I use Nelson boundry line paint with a brush and do a a mile or two every mudseason. It works good untill you trip and spill. 

[Magicman]

   It works good untill you trip and spill.   

Like I did last year.  A root grabbed me and down the embankment I went with a bucket of paint and two Grandsons watching.  I didn't get it on me anywhere but everywhere 

[chain]

If I recall correctly you are not supposed to cut blaze marks on boundary trees unless you are a state approved surveyor. You can paint over old marks and paint on trees when the wire fence is the boundary and it is grown into the fence. The best thing you can do as a land owner is to paint and flag markers that were created or mentioned on a previous official survey. This is for Vermont other states might be different. I use Nelson boundry line paint with a brush and do a a mile or two every mudseason. It works good untill you trip and spill. 

As I stated I  do preserve our boundary trees, first for legalities, the other for posterity. We've had a number of incidents that removed a great many of the orginal boundary trees. Tornados, ice storms, diseases, and illegal cutting. Some of these old trees have survived since the survey in 1952. Dad came along in the early sixties and repainted.

Today, here in Missouri, we have the realtively new "Purple Paint Law" to keep trespassers aware of private property. This paint must be applied every hundred feet [more or less] so, you can imagine the painting going on. I use a purple areosol spot paint just near gates and other crossings.

[SwampDonkey]

Here on farms we have 3 paint colors.

red is no trespassing
yellow is get permission first
blue is farming and cultivation, stay off.

[JimMartin9999]

I have never heard  that landwners canīt blaze trees. I find that hard to believe, but  with fifty states almost anything is possible.
I am very suspicious of wire on boundary lines.  The old farmers in my part of upstate NY used to zigzag wire back and forth across the "real" line so you canīt rely on it at any one point.

The general direction is usually ok.

[SwampDonkey]

A bunch of us from woodlot owner organizations had a meeting with the NB land surveyors and they didn't want anyone blazing trees unless old blazes where left as evidence on the trees. They made it quite clear that if they found evidence of tampering with lines they would bring it before the courts. They really didn't want us to brush and paint either, but we talked a little sense into them over that. You see this type of work on maintaining lines cuts into their line of business. There is always the potential of some guy going out there and making his own line down through the woods and creating a mess with the neighbors. I've seen it many times where a neighbor will not recognize a line his neighbor marked and often moved it. Sometimes I see two parallel lines marked. You might see where someone went with a compass , marked with an axe as he went. Got tired and quit before he was done.  Came back at a later date and did the same thing coming from the other end and the lines don't touch. Out in the middle the ends are off by 100 feet. Then left for the next guy to deal with.

[pappy19]

When I worked for the US Forest Service in Island Park, Idaho, the USFS property was adjacent to the Yellowstone Nat'l Park, so the boundary lines were very important. The Ranger decided to use writable aluminum squares about 5X5 in size and then use aluminum tacks to attach to the tree to identify boundary trees in addition to the Nelspot boundary paint. 20 years later, the aluminum squares were still there and looked brand new.

[Woolywolf]

Here's a link to an extension publication that tells what all the symbols mean, one line versus two lines, etc.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/forest/pdf/WON/won35.pdf

[Raider Bill]

Thanks that makes sense. Now if I can figure out the X's and O's

[SwampDonkey]

Join the like symbols with a line through'm diagonal, across or down.