Before I signed my current timber company lease, I spent months negotiating price per acre and access terms. What I completely failed to nail down in writing was spray buffer language. Two summers in, the company ran an herbicide program right up to my hollow's edge and wiped out a ramp colony my grandmother had been harvesting from for thirty years. Gone in a single afternoon.
I used to think lease access was the whole game when dealing with timber companies. I was wrong. The spray program IS the lease. Those companies have legal right-of-way to manage their timber, and unless your lease explicitly carves out no-spray buffers around creek drainages, seeps, and known forage areas, you have essentially no recourse.
Now I include GPS-referenced buffer zones, required advance notice windows, and specific herbicide disclosure requirements in every lease conversation I have. Most companies will negotiate if you ask before signing — not after.
Anyone else tried to add spray buffer language to a timber or hunting lease? I'm curious whether the larger corporate timber holders are harder to work with on this than regional family-owned operations.