Background/History

Several years ago 880 acres of private land to our south came up for sale. We contacted the landowner and found he was selling the land for a higher than market value and without the logging rights. Because of this we decided not to try to buy. Over the past decade there was no real interest in this land and thus little worry for us.

However, in the past year a logger named Dan Zimmerman bought the land and started Clear Cutting the land. He has been cutting since March and has cleared about 300 acres and continues to clear more daily! If he continues at his present rate he will be logging within sight of Carter Shay by late September.

Needless to say we are very concerned with the ecological impact of this highly destructive form of logging. Over the past few months we have been contacting local and natural conservation organizations such as The Nature Conservancy and the Ozark Land Trust. We have also been working with our neighbor Dan Hellmuth who owns land to the south west of us. We set up a meeting with the Dan Zimmerman, the logger. We met on May 24 th and negotiated some agreements.

1. He would leave 100' buffers around all streams
2. He would not log any areas we are currently talking about and would consider selling us 40-120 acres for a price to be negotiated
3. He would not log at night during events.
4. He would consider letting us replant some/all of his land and reduce his asking price.

Overall the meeting went well but we still need to negotiate a reasonable price for the land.