Specifications include, but are not limited to: BOUNDARY LINE MAINTENANCE SPECIFICATIONS 1. All of the below specifications, including Linework, Painting, Surveying and Spotting are prepared as standards for maintaining boundary lines on Maine’s Public Reserved Lands. These standards are guidelines for the restoration of a previously established line where sufficient evidence still exists. The specifications are not intended to have a contractor re-survey a missing line. Use of a hand compass may be required to provide a straight line of sight for spotting, assisting in locating historical blazes and piecing together sections of line with infrequent old blazes. Lines should not be “straightened” but instead be held to the historic evidence. If insufficient historical evidence can be found, then the maintenance should be abandoned, and the contract administrator notified to confirm the lack of evidence. A site visit and discussion will follow wherein the State will determine if surveying services will be requested of the contractor. a. State shall provide electronic location data to the contractor for the purposes of locating existing property lines and corners. Data will not be survey grade. b. Upon completion of the work, contractor shall provide digital GPS data back to the State based on what was found for evidence on the ground. This data does not have to be survey grade data. The data should be in the form of geo-referenced .pdf files and .shp files with associated files that allow the data to be uploaded into a GIS system. LINEWORK 1. Lines serve as the legal separation between adjoining landowners as well as travel lanes and cruising ties. The objective of maintaining the line is not to clear the line location completely but to leave some healthy trees of all sizes so that the line may be maintained for the long term. 2. Brushing is the removal of unnecessary limbs, trees, and other materials from the boundary line. This work will require the use of wood cutting tools, e.g. axes, chainsaw, or other tools. Brushing will be done correctly if the following is accomplished: a. Trees within 2ft of center line will be brushed on all sides. b. The boundary line corridor will be brushed to a 2ft – 3ft width limit. c. Tree limbs projecting into the corridor will be trimmed back to the 3ft width limit. d. Cut limbs to a height of 6ft on trees over 14ft high, and to no more than half the height of trees under 14ft. e. Where small trees are grown in dense thickets, the trees are to be thinned to a 3ft spacing. The larger healthier trees should be left. Do not remove all small trees if there are not enough larger trees to carry spots. All tree species are acceptable, but alders and hazel bush should be used only as a last resort. f. Blowdowns that cross the line can be left provided that it is limbed where it crosses the 3ft corridor. 3. Any small trees that are removed should be completely severed from the stump or uprooted to ensure that the stumps are not more than 2ft high.
