Well I guess that's it

[lakota]

The area I live in is a subdivision of sorts. It has always been surrounded by lots of deep woods and farms. My back yard butts up against a field that is several miles across. I even had permission to hunt this area back before the old farmers dies off.
 
The past few years have seen Mcmansions being built in what was once wood lots but the field have been untouched and are always planted and harvested. Well this fall the crop was harvested and now there is heavy equipment back there and it looks like they are grading it. So much for privacy and the semi-wild place I used to live in. I wonder whats going in back there? For years I heard it was going to be a golf course community. A golf course would be preferable to another yuppie subdivision. So long deer and turkeys in the back yard.

[Ranger99]

very sorry  to hear of that.
a friend lives 20 miles out of town and
we used to bird hunt all around his house
and could sight in rifles out behind his
property. now the whole countryside is
dotted with half million dollar homes
and the tiny country roads are worn out
with constant traffic.
sad to say, but the only sure way to avoid
that is move way out at least 2 hours from
any major metropolitan area and then buy
enough land for a buffer zone around you.
a friend who recently passed away had moved
an hour outside town about 25 years ago
and had no urban problems until about 7-10
years ago. now theft and vandalism are rampant,
and everything has to be locked up if you
walk away for a while. their problem was
mainly families moving there with their punk
kids trying to find a place where little billy
or suzy might settle down and behave in
small town u.s.a.
being in a place where there are fewer law
officers just made it easier for those kids to
vandalize and steal and do drugs.


a shame what the world has become

[Sourdough]

Yea, I can relate.  We bought our 5 acre place in 1985.  The Alaska pipeline runs right behind my place, but across the pipeline was woods, woods and more woods.  The old man that owned the place gave my partner and I permission to hunt there.  We could get on the pipeline right of way and go as far as we wanted to go.  Then he started digging a gravel pit along beside the pipeline right of way.  He told us it was going to be a float pond for Air Craft, great.  Norm and I could keep planes on the back of my property and use the float pond for take off and landings.  We actually used the pond for several years.

Then the old man died in 2002.  His kids threw a bunch of logs into the pond to stop anyone from using the pond for Air Craft.  Then they started selling off the land.  The farthest land from me first.  Then the middle portion.  Now they have sold the portion with the pond.  The new owner made the pond wider and shorter, too short for a float plane.  Houses were built, gates put across the pipeline right of way, and no trespassing signs everywhere.  Now we have to trailer out to get to the snowmachine trails, no more riding from the house. 

[Ranger99]

dang. . . .


if you can't go to alaska and get away from
the **** , well i guess you just can't escape.


shoulda bought 50 instead of 5


my teeny 20 seems like a backyard at times.
this last weekend, the people were all off for
thanksgiving and it seemed like a park with all
the people on adjacent properties buzzing around
on their atvs and rapid firing their ar-15s.

[clum sum]

If you wont land to play on , buy it. Uesd to have 200,000 acres to play on when I was a kid but stupid people and law suites stoped that. Mostly stupid people. Now I have 17 acres in the mountins and only wont my kid to use it. It is now, if you wont to play you have to pay.

[kennyd]

Houses were built, gates put across the pipeline right of way, and no trespassing signs everywhere.  Now we have to trailer out to get to the snowmachine trails, no more riding from the house.
[/size]
[/size]Colorado has a law about customary usage or some such phrasing that allows traditional access to contimue.  I assume the pipeline access is also for maintenance.  I wonder what sort of people in AK want it to be just like California or wherever.  I an sure you would like them to just move back to the 48.
[/size]
[/size]Around here 2 hours won't do it.  A huge buffer zone would still work if you could afford it, but at some point you become one of "them".

[Conan The Librarian]

We experienced something similar but had a plan B and left.

[Doublebass73]

That's sad news. The greatest threat to wildlife is loss of habitat.

[JonnyReb]

 Did it here in N.C. too, started in the late 80's and the miles of trails, fields and farmland I knew as a kid is gone. Literally the last vestige of dirt trail I recognized from then is being plowed under this month, now its all gone except for the creeks. I moved away when this development was underway and my new little acreage had remained pristine for almost 20 years. Now the land around me has been bought and development coming, only the economy is holding them back. I've always said i'd never live where I couldn't shoot, time is coming to make my last move, to a quiet red state where I can pick up another and final little stake..

[Sourdough]

I go back to Tennessee, and it just makes me sick.  When we moved there it was a farming communitee.  Fields, pastures, and wooded land everywhere.  We moved into an old farm house, and my best friend Larry (the one I visit every year in Florida) lived across the cow pasture.  It was a good mile across that pasture to his house from mine.  Today the entire area has been turned into a cuty, and the subdivisions are no longer half acre lots.  The houses are like 20 feet apart.  Close together and small.  Wal-mart built a store where I used to hunt Deer and Phasant.  The little creek where we caught crawdads and minnows got filled in for a new Library.  The subdivision where a buddy lived got bought by a developer.  The houses were built in the 50s, and were getting old.  He tore them all down and put up four houses on each lot.  Them folks ain't got a yard.  One of my nieces lives there.  Her kitchen window, and bedroom window looks directly into the neighbors windows.  Went to the kitchen for some water.  Looked out the window above the sink.  there was the neighbors wife running around the house, topless.  Carrie said that is common, she is like that all the time.

[williamlayton]

HUMMMMMMM !!!!
We want, we want, we want. It is change. Good old days ?
Folks, life is full of changes--people want to live where there are no people. I just don't understand why people don't understand.
If you want to work--there have to be people.
The population grows--we know why---but seem to enjoy the process to much to stop the population growth.
Seems to me we are pretty self-centered---me and mine and pull up the gangplank.
I kinda like people around.
Blessings

[guzzijohn]

I am lucky to be where I am. The nearest small town is six miles away and three towns between 2000 and 15000 people are about 10 miles away. In my immediate area there are a number of flood control dams. After Katrina the flood plains in our area were expanded to include any area that could be flooded if the dam(s) had instant, catastrophic failures (very unlikely). That pretty much prevents any residential development in the future. Second, most of the farms around me are second and third generation that will fight any development.
GuzziJohn

[SHOOTALL]

Well we are seeing subdivisions creeping close. So far the effect has been game pushed into my backyard    lets see between my son and myself  turkeys in the last few years or so 3 with over 13 inch beards , deer from doe to 8 pointerS , son trapping bobcats , fox and coon.
 Yea the bubble will burst but it's a fine time right now.

[lakota]

There was a brushy tree line of sorts between my yard and the field. They came along with a track hoe and ripped it out. On a positive note they have yet to touch the peninsula of trees that is about 200 yards wide that extends out from the remaining body of woods and seperates 2 fields

[gstewart44]

The area of rural NC where I learned to hunt rabbits and squirrels with my Grandfather were turned into an exclusive members only Golf Resort about 12 years ago.    My uncles home used to back up to real thick woods - Now it is a tall fence the Resort put up to keep out the regular folks. 

[BBF]

13 km to the nearest small town with shopping facilities. I can't see my neighbor. I doubt there are 50 vehicles of any type going past my place. Trees more trees and some flooded land because of beavers all around.

[Tiapan64]

I have always lived in a small town.  15000 or so souls, quiet for the most part....drugs and the like are here for sure.  But for the most part quiet.  Used to be able to go down to the river, (Canadian), and hunt when it was state land, but that went away about 10 yrs ago when the state gave the land to the land owners butting up against the state land.  Used to be able to go to the lake (Lake Merideth) and fish....now it is more like a big pond...New Mexico has two dams on the Canadian river that has stopped the flow of water into this lake .  The lake used to be 15-20 miles long 1-11/2 miles wide and 90 ft deep.....now about 6 miles long and ~25 ft deep...salt is so concentrated the fish are dying off and will soon be lifeless.  This area used to be a sportsmans paradise....not so much any more.  When I retire in 11 or so yrs...I'm out of here and going to move to an area where I can buy 40 or so acres and build my house and live out the rest of my life where I can hunt and fish...North east Texas between tyler and paris Texas is where I have found land....keeping an eye on that area.  Several parcels for sale for about 250,000 or so with 40-200 acres that look nice with ponds.  One caught my eye that had 125 acres and a pond with docks and a 4 bedroom house for about 275,000 but by the time I retire those deals will be long gone I'm sure.  But I will still move to someplace that has more than 2 seasons....(Hot and Windy and Cold and windy) !  But who knows....I may not even live long enough to retire....much less get to go where I want or build my retirement home....but if I don't get to,  at least the wife will have the money to do as she wants with.  The town where I live hasn't changed too much in my 48 yrs here,  But the area around it has...Can't hunt....fishing....not so much without driving a ways....oh well....just remembering the way it used to be  .