Itbegan 15 years ago as a feud between Hampstead neighbors over three barking dogs and escalated into a crusade to save endangered bog turtles.
On Thursday, the battle between Mark Laird, who owns a 35-acre farm, and his neighbor David Solomon will play out before the Court of Special Appeals, the state?s second-highest court.
Solomon, appealing a lower court decision, claims dog feces from Laird?s farm threaten endangered bog turtles in his backyard.
But bog turtles have never been found there, the Carroll Circuit Court found last year, allowing Laird to keep his dog kennels after Solomon appealed a county zoning decision.
The tale of the two warring neighbors began in 1994.
In letters, Solomon complained that Laird?s barking dogs kept him awake at night and that dog feces from the farm polluted nearby Prettyboy Reservoir.
The flash point came last year, when the county granted Laird?s application for a zoning variance for another dog kennel. Laird says it allows him 10 dogs.
Solomon says Laird has repeatedly harassed him with phone calls and letters.
“I?ve been under a constant barrage,” Solomon said. “It?s not peaceful here at all.”
“That?s pure fabrication,” Laird retorted.
The state Department of Natural Resources found bog turtles in 1993, but they were nearly a mile from Solomon?s property.
Solomon says the same marsh connects to his property, but officials haven?t found turtles on his side.
“Though bog turtles are found in wetlands nearby, our assessment was that your wetlands do not serve as ecologically important buffers for that population of threatened species,” DNR Secretary C. Ronald Franks wrote in an August 2006 letter to Solomon.
But Solomon presses on, he says, for the environment.
“God gave me a reason to be here,” he says. “I feellike I?m the only one standing up and saying, ?Hell no.? ”
