I’ve never been too worried about the forest burning down, but I have worried about the liability involved if someone ever were hurt while in the woods.

When I first acquired the forest, I called my homeowner’s insurance company to see if they could add the forest on to my policy. They said there was no need, since all liability issues would be covered under my umbrella policy, so long as there were no buildings on the forest property.

But they also said that the moment I built any structure in the woods, then it would no longer be covered under my homeowner’s policy. I would need to buy another insurance policy to cover the forest.

As soon as I committed to building the storage shed, I called up my insurance company again.

“Yes, you are correct. You would need another policy as soon as you build your building.”

“Fine. Then I’d like to know how much it would cost.”

“Actually, we don’t sell those policies.”

“Do you know someone who does?”

“No, but you could look for a farm insurance company.”

I was OK with that. I started thinking about whether I knew any farm insurance companies. Then it came to me: State Farm Insurance. I looked at their website and found the part that described insuring unoccupied land. I called them.

“I’m sorry, but we don’t actually sell insurance for unoccupied land.”

“But your website says you do.”

“Well, that’s not entirely true. We don’t sell it at all.”

They referred me to an insurance broker. I explained my situation to a very nice agent. She later sent me 15 page document which I could sign and I would have my insurance. The problem was that I read through the document. Among the interesting clauses in it were:

“No structures on the premises”

“No logging operations”

“No activities of any kind (business, recreational or other) take place on the property, with or without the owner’s permission.”

The reason I needed this insurance at all was because I was putting a building on the land. I had no logging operations planned for the immediate future, but ultimately, the trees will be harvested…you know…the circle of life. This is a forest they are insuring, so what did they think we would do with all the trees?

Finally, I just couldn’t grasp the third prohibition (“No activities of any kind…). Aside from it being totally clueless, if I were to accept this, there again would be no need for any kind of insurance. I feared this was a clause to enable the insurance company to weasel out of covering any incident.

I called the insurance broker back, explained the problem, and she said she’d work on it. If she did, she never told me about it. So the next time I was talking to the County Zoning Commissioner, I told him the story, and he said, “Go see this guy over on the square. He’s honest, and does this type of work all the time. He’ll get you fixed up.”

I met with my Insurance Guy at 10:30 in the morning, and by 2:00 in the afternoon, I had my insurance, without the crazy stipulations, for less than half the price the insurance broker had proposed.

Problem solved.