Deeded easement purchaser by National Forest. Is it now public land?

[SanDiegoNFaccess]

What is the name of your state? California
In our town the National Forest purchased a 900acre property which includes a parcel described as an Ingress, Egress Easement across a property which leads to a paved road. The easement has survey stakes on each corner. I am wondering if the easement can now be used by anyone wanting ingress/egress to the 900 acre National Forest. Surprisingly the National Forest Ranger in our town says he doesn’t know if the public can walk through the easement. So I’m trying to figure out how I can confirm that the public can use this easement.

This is how the easement is described in the Property Deed:
“Parcel D - A 40 foot wide strip of land being 10 feet on either side of the following described centerline being an easement for ingress and egress, and utility purposes.”

 

[SanDiegoNFaccess]

“10 feet” above is a type-0 it should be “20 feet”

 

[xylene]

Do you wish to use the forest or are you looking to prevent people from doing so (and or block some kinds of users etc)?

Bluntly - you are kinda asking the National Forest Ranger at a... bad time.

 

[SanDiegoNFaccess]

Thanks for replying.
I’m trying to access the National Forest.
I do know it’s not the best time to be asking the Ranger due to the Govt Shutdown. I’m not in any rush but I also don’t want the easement to be vacated if they don’t think there is going to be use. I’ll wait to touch base with the Ranger again until a few weeks after the Govt Shutdown ends.

 

[xylene]

Personally I'd take the Ranger's ambivalence as permission until i was ordered otherwise.

I'd also get lots of people to start using it so there would be a base of people to complain if the access was closed.

 

[154NH773]

“In our town the National Forest purchased a 900acre property which includes a parcel described as an Ingress, Egress Easement across a property which leads to a paved road.“

From the way you have written your post, the National Forest is the owner of the property upon which the easement lies.
If that is incorrect, please clarify who owned the property (servient owner).

No matter who owns the property, or the easement, it doesn’t give you any particular rights. As others said, you can try using the easement and see if any party complains or tries to stop you, but your use now wouldn’t give you any future rights to use it. The Forest Service closes roads all the time at their discretion.

 

[SanDiegoNFaccess]

From the way you have written your post, the National Forest is the owner of the property upon which the easement lies.
If that is incorrect, please clarify who owned the property (servient owner).

Sorry for my description being ambiguous. This may be a better way to describe it. There are two properties, I’ll call them property A and B. To get to property B from the street a person must cross property A. Property B is owned by the National Forest and their deed includes the easement I described above. Property A is owned by a timber company. The easement was the driveway to property B when property B was a Ranch (before being acquired into the National Forest). I don’t have an interest in driving on the easement, only in walking on it to get to the National Forest. The distance on Property A is about 200yards before reaching property B. As mentioned, there are survey stakes on the corners of the easement and it’s clear from their newness that they were placed when property B was bought by National Forest.

 

[justalayman]

You will have to research the creation of the easement. While the verbiage is important, so is the intent of the grantor.


Without further informstion, it would appear IF the forest service permits you to use parcel D you would be able to use parcel D. Since the rights to use the easement are granted to the Forest Srvice, they control who they extend those rights to.



It’s no different than if a driveway to a private home utilizes an easement. The owner or the home, as the dominant tenant, controls who access their home. Of course the owner of the servient tenement can also permit anybody they choose to use the easement, since it is their land. The servient tenant can not deny the dominant tenants rights though, even if that is to allow the general public to accessing the land behind their own.

 

[SanDiegoNFaccess]

Thank you. I’ve been thinking it through and will probably offer the timber company some sort of annual payment if they let me use the easement to access the national Forest. I’d rather make a relatively moderate payment and keep everyone happy than possibly ruin things by rushing ahead or spending too much time researching.

 

[justalayman]

Thank you. I’ve been thinking it through and will probably offer the timber company some sort of annual payment if they let me use the easement to access the national Forest. I’d rather make a relatively moderate payment and keep everyone happy than possibly ruin things by rushing ahead or spending too much time researching.

From what you’ve said the timber company does not have the right to allow allow you to use nor deny your use of the easement. They are merely licensees. The owner of the land (Forest Service) is who can allow or deny use.

 

[xylene]

That seems incredibly unwise and it would not stop the FOREST SERVICE from barring you.

 

[SanDiegoNFaccess]

I’m definitely confused by these replies. The main Forest Service Land (Parcel B) is absolutely National Forest and open to anyone who can get there. But the only way I have to get there is from the main paved road then through Parcel A. The easement across parcel A is a dirt ‘driveway’ to parcel B and also is the only driveable access from the paved road onto parcel A (so if the timber company ever built a structure on parcel A then I think the structure would be accessed through this same ‘driveway’). The other road frontage of parcel A is not level to the road and so it would be more difficult for the timber company to access parcel A from anywhere else. Therefore I’m thinking the Forest Service views the easement as being shared with the owner of Parcel A rather than something they own and can grant access to.
Thank you! You made me think some more and I’ll definitely wait for the government shutdown to end so I can discuss this further with the Forest Service before making an individual arrangement with the owner of Parcel A. I have plenty of time to wait because I do most of my hiking in the late Summer/Fall.

 

[SanDiegoNFaccess]

Should I instead be offering the Forest Service (instead of the timber company) a financial arrangement in order to use their easement?

 

[justalayman]

Let’s back up. I don’t know if I understand who is who here.


Who owns the land the easement is on?


Unless it is an exclusive easement, that is who you need to ask to use the easement.

If it is an exclusive easement, then you ask the dominant tenant for permission

 

[SanDiegoNFaccess]

The easement crosses land owned by a timber company. At the far end of the timber property is a parcel which was purchased by the National Forest in 2018. The only way I would be able to get to the National Forest Parcel is through the easement across the timber company’s parcel.