Unpleasant Discovery

[omimouse]

Some friends of ours came over yesterday. D and her sister L, and L's little. They brought someone that Dragon and Ebon knew with them, K.

All happy and good, especially when Reanna and Louis came down from Nashville with groceries for us. (Thankyouthankyouthankyou)

So, Catchild, Ebon, Louis, K, and I go out to show K around the property.

When we hit the slope up the ridge, we saw the signs of heavy machinery, and missing and felled trees. Lots of missing and felled trees. One of the fences had been pulled down, and when we got to the ridge, we saw a lot more of the same.

The ridge used to be heavily forrested. Now it looks like clear-cutters have been through, and it's blantantly obvious that it's not storm damage.

We've lost two cedar groves, and a third is badly damaged. The trees that Warin and I were handfasted under; the trees that *witnessed* and *guarded* our handfasting are no longer there; the ridgetop looks and feels like it's been raped.

We own the mineral and lumber rights to this land - all of the mineral and lumber rights. We gave *no one* permission to cut *anything* on this land. Granted, part of it was the guy who's got the cows on our land making it easier to bushhog an area for us. Catchild told him that we *do* have plans for the trees on our property, and that he just screwed those plans up. She also told him that he needed permission from the family before taking down *anything* else on the property.

That was a miscommunication, but that only accounts for one of the cedar groves.

To say the the family is enraged is an understatment. I think that we're filing a police report over this; the family was at least very strongly leaning that way last night.

Feel free to offer advice on how to proceed; we want the people who did this found.

Comments

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

File the police report. Find a lawyer. Probably a lawyer in Nashville, because local lawyers probably won't be too sympathetic about "outsiders" (people who haven't lived there for six generations).

yesyes, police

[titaniablue.livejournal.com]

i know how people might not like the men in blue or whatever color they might wear, but this is definitely a police matter. you would do the same if they broke into the house and stole your tv, wouldn't you? and trees are just as valuable as anything else. that was wanton destruction of property. that's the same as if they drove a car through your front door and then drove off before you noticed the gaping hole in your brand new home. it is criminal in every sense of the word and should be prosecuted until at least partially satisfied.

i say partially because you will not be able to be satisfied fully by anything the law can do. the law can't bring those trees back. the law can't put the grove back together. the law can't replace the trees that guarded your handfasting. i am a firm believer in the law. it should be at least attempted. after all, i wished the mundane law be hurled at them in addition to all the other flack they'll be catching from everything else that lives around there: people, animals, elves, faeries, dryads, plants, kelpies, insects.

there was an acquaintance of folksies down south who had some of my books and wouldn't give them back when i asked several times and then she proceeded to move out, taking them with her. that was theft of property. according to my personal code (which some folks know as fae law), i was allowed to take any one thing of hers. when she gave them back to me at the ren faire up here, she was on crutches. i take theft very seriously. this is not just theft in my eyes. this is theft, kidnapping and murder.

Lady Blue is not a happy camper. Lady Blue has "children" living there, as well as faery godchildren and they should be protected at all costs. Lady Blue has spoken.