The only time I will "Flag" line is in the case of needing the lines marked for the health department to perc test a property. Even then I am still surveying the boundary, I am just not putting stakes on the lines but on trees that are close to the line and even then I put the flagging inside the property lines.?ÿ
Had a guy wanted to pay me to flag his property lines with his wife's art work. At first I thought he was pulling my leg so I played along since he was a doctor and I was sure he was joking. He was not. When I gave him an estimate on the price he choked and howled about highway robbery. I just said to him, well I guess it's safe to say then you don't put a very high price on your wife's artwork. That didn't over as well as I'd hoped and I didn't get the job but I'm pretty sure that was a blessing. I can't afford to color outside the lines like some people.
I check all the boxes and follow the rules in the state in which I am working, but determining how we protect the public is much more subjective with surveying than with engineering or medicine or accounting.?ÿ One thing??s for sure, despite differing rules regarding closure standards, adverse possession, proper monumentation, right of entry, requirements to record, statutes of limitation, education etc., no one state stands out as being uniquely dangerous to the public.?ÿ Some states still allow real property owners the ability to create family subdivisions without employing a PLS.?ÿ Some states allow PEs, who may have never taken a real estate law class, to perform subdivisions of land.?ÿ Farm and timber lots can be surveyed to an accuracy of just 1:5000 or much less in some states.?ÿ The single most important way to protect the public is to be honest.?ÿ I view my client as 51% of the public.?ÿ My grandmother would say, ??Mind your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves.??ÿ Mind your clients and the public will be just fine.
As far as running a compass line is concerned, a Suunto compass threaded into a monopod can be quite accurate with proper procedure.?ÿ Larger staff compasses are even better, especially for areas with high relief.?ÿ At least where I grew up, if a PLS refused to flag a wood lot with a compass, they would be openly mocked (and rightly so).?ÿ Granted, I've met shockingly few PLSs outside of New England who have spent the necessary time to learn how to competently use a compass.?ÿ So, I agree that most PLSs and Party Chiefs shouldn't touch a compass and should always use their total stations and GNSS units for absolutely everything, with no exceptions whatsoever (yes that is sarcasm).?ÿ I, having developed the requisite skills, view my compass, tape, and hip-chain as just another tool to use on rare occasions.?ÿ
Regarding loggers finding and flagging boundaries, the only way to stop this practice is to greatly increase the penalty for cutting trees off-property.?ÿ Typically the rate is triple stumpage, which is a joke.?ÿ Likewise, the cost of the fine for surveying without a license would have to be increased to an amount that would appear draconian to everyone but a PLS.?ÿ As many have indicated on this forum, it's difficult to get a PLS to do anything other than a complete boundary survey, which I frankly believe to be more about cost analysis than a concern for the client or the public at large (which is fine and how a good business should be run).?ÿ The cost of hiring a PLS to survey a 500 acre tract is much greater than the cost of paying damages for cutting a few trees over the line and that only matters if the logger is honest.?ÿ Although it's a harsh view, I believe that it is ultimately the responsibility of a land owner to tend to their asset.?ÿ?ÿ
