The following definitions shall apply in the interpretation and implementation
of this chapter:
ABUTTER
The same as "owner of land abutting the activity."
AGRICULTURE
Land with resource areas or the buffer zone presently and
primarily used in producing or raising one or more of the following
agricultural commodities for commercial purposes:
(1)
Animals, including but not limited to livestock, poultry, and
bees;
(2)
Fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts, and other foods for human
consumption;
(3)
Feed, seed, forage, tobacco, flowers, sod, nursery or greenhouse
products, and ornamental plants or shrubs; and
(4)
Forest products under a planned program to improve the quality
and quantity.
ALTER
To change the condition of any area subject to protection
under the chapter. Examples of alterations include, but are not limited
to, the following:
(1)
The changing of preexisting drainage characteristics, flushing
characteristics, salinity distribution, sedimentation patterns, flow
patterns and flood retention areas;
(2)
The lowering or raising of the water level or water table;
(3)
The destruction of vegetation, including cutting or trimming
of trees and shrubs, or mowing, in a manner that will, in the reasonable
judgment of the Conservation Commission, result in a long-term or
short-term adverse impact to the resource area;
(4)
The changing of water temperature, biochemical oxygen demand
(BOD), and other physical, biological or chemical characteristics
of the receiving water;
(5)
The discharge of dredged or fill material, including but not
limited to vegetative debris, soil, dirt, rocks, stone, solid waste,
or pollution;
(6)
Activities which may cause or tend to contribute to pollution
of any body of water or groundwater;
(7)
Driving of piles, or erection or repair of buildings or structures
of any kind unless the footprint of the building is altered at ground
level;
(8)
Dumping, discharging, or filling any material which may degrade
water quality;
(9)
Placing of material, or removal of material, which would alter
elevation;
(10)
Placing of obstructions or objects; and
(11)
Incremental activities which have, or may have, a cumulative
adverse impact on the resource areas protected by this chapter.
APPLICANT
Any person who files a notice of intent, or on whose behalf
such a notice is filed.
AREAS SUBJECT TO FLOODING
Depressions or closed basins which serve as ponding areas
for runoff, snowmelt, heavy precipitation, or high groundwater which
has risen above the ground surface, and areas which flood from a rise
in a bordering waterway or water body.
AREAS SUBJECT TO PROTECTION
Wetlands, including bordering and isolated wetlands, marshes,
wet meadows, bogs, swamps, isolated and bordering lands subject to
flooding, streams, rivers, creeks, brooks, vernal pools, kettle holes,
springs, land under water, ponds, lakes, banks, bogs, buffer zones
and riverfront areas.
BANK
Includes the land area which normally abuts and confines
a water body; the lower boundary being the mean annual low flow level,
and the upper boundary being the first observable break in the slope
or the mean annual flood level, whichever is higher.
BORDERING
Touching in some manner, at any point or along any length
of boundary, and including any portion of a resource area subject
to protection under the chapter.
BREEDING AREA
Areas used by wildlife for courtship, mating, nesting, or
other reproductive activity, and rearing of young.
BUFFER ZONE
That area of land extending 100 feet horizontally outward
from the boundary of any area subject to protection in the chapter.
CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE
A written determination by the issuing authority that work
or a portion thereof has been completed in accordance with an order.
It shall be made on Form 8 of 310 CMR 10.99.
DETERMINATION OF APPLICABILITY
A written finding by a conservation commission or the Department
as to whether a site or the work proposed thereon is subject to the
jurisdiction of the bylaw. It shall be made of Form 2 of 310 CMR 10.99.
DETERMINATION OF SIGNIFICANCE
A written finding by a conservation commission, after a public
hearing, or by the Department, that the area on which the proposed
work is to be done, or which the proposed work will alter, is significant
to one or more of the interests identified in the bylaw. It shall
be made as part of the order, on Form 5 of 310 CMR 10.99.
ISOLATED LAND SUBJECT TO FLOODING
Shall be any isolated depression without an inlet which at
least once a year confines standing water to a volume of at least
1/4 acre-foot of water with an average depth of at least six inches.
The boundary is the perimeter of the largest observed or recorded
volume of water confined in the basin.
NONTRANSIENT MACROORGANISMS
Includes the following wetland plants (as defined in MGL
c. 131 § 40, or in regulations 310 CMR 10.00) and/or animals
visible to the naked eye, including but not limited to: Eubrachiopods,
Isopods, Amphipods, Coleoptera, Trichoptera and Pisidiid clams.
NOTICE OF INTENT
The written notice filed by any person intending to remove,
fill, dredge or alter an area subject to protection under the chapter.
It shall be made on Form 3 or 4 of 310 CMR 10.99.
NOTIFICATION OF NONSIGNIFICANCE
A written finding by a conservation commission, after a public
hearing, or by the Department, that the area on which the proposed
work is to be done, or which the proposed work will alter, is not
significant to any of the interests of the bylaw. It shall be made
on Form 6 of 310 CMR 10.99.
ORDER OF CONDITIONS
The document issued by a conservation commission containing
conditions which regulate or prohibit an activity. It shall be made
on Form 5 of 310 CMR 10.99.
OWNER OF LAND ABUTTING THE ACTIVITY
The owner of land sharing a common boundary or corner with
the site of the proposed activity in any direction, including land
located directly across a street, way, creek, river, stream, brook
or canal.
PLANS
Such data, maps, engineering drawings, calculations, specifications,
schedules and other materials, if any, deemed necessary by the issuing
authority to describe the site and/or the work, to determine the applicability
of MGL c. 131, § 40, or to determine the impact of the proposed
work upon the interests identified in the Town of Stoughton NOI guidelines.
POND
As defined by 310 CMR 10.04 except that the size threshold
shall be 5,000 square feet.
PRIVATE WATER SUPPLY
Any source or volume of surface water or groundwater demonstrated
to be in any private use or demonstrated to have a potential for private
use.
PUBLIC WATER SUPPLY
Any source or volume of surface water or groundwater demonstrated
to be in public use or approved for water supply pursuant to MGL c.
111, § 160, by the Division of Water Supply of the Department,
or demonstrated to have a potential for public use.
RARE SPECIES
Those vertebrate and invertebrate animal species officially
listed as endangered, threatened, or of special concern by the Massachusetts
Division of Fisheries and Wildlife under 321 CMR 8.00.
RESOURCE AREAS BORDERING WATER BODIES
Any bank, flat, marsh, freshwater wetland, beach, meadow,
dune or swamp that borders on any estuary, creek, river, stream, pond,
or lake, or that touches one of the above land areas that itself borders
a water body, is a protectable area. (Areas subject to flooding are
also protectable.)
RIVER
A body of water as is defined in the Massachusetts Rivers
Protection Act (Acts of 1996, c. 258)
RIVERFRONT AREA
Defined in the Massachusetts Rivers Protection Act (Acts
of 1996, c. 258).
SEASONAL WETLAND
Any areas subject to flooding which form temporary confined
bodies of water during periods of high water table and high input
from spring runoff or snowmelt or heavy precipitation, and support
populations of nontransient macroorganisms or serve as breeding habitat
for select species of amphibians.
SELECT SPECIES OF AMPHIBIANS
Species of amphibians which depend on seasonal wetlands for
breeding habitat, including: mole salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum,
A. jeffersonianum, A. laterale, and A. opacum); four-toed salamanders
(Hemidactylium scutatum); eastern spadefoot toads (Scaphiopus holbrookii);
American and Fowler's toads (Bufo americanus and B. woodhousii
fowleri); spring peepers (Hyla c. crucifer); gray tree frogs (Hyla
versicolor); wood frogs (Rana sylvatica); and fairy shrimp (Eubranchipus
sp.).
STORM DAMAGE PREVENTION
The prevention of damage caused by water from storms, including,
but not limited to, erosion and sedimentation, damage to vegetation,
property or buildings or damage caused by flooding, water-borne debris
or water-borne ice.
TEMPORARY CONFINED BODIES OF WATER
Bodies of water with little or no flow that periodically
become dry to such extent that they cannot support sustained fish
populations.
VERNAL POOL
Includes a confined basin depression which, at least in most
years, holds water for a minimum of two continuous months during the
spring and/or summer, and which is free of adult fish populations,
as well as the area within 100 feet of the mean annual boundary of
such a depression, regardless of whether the site has been certified
by the Massachusetts Division of Wildlife and Fisheries.
VERNAL POOL HABITAT
Confined basin depression which, at least in most years, holds water for a minimum of two continuous months during the spring and/or summer, and which is free of adult fish populations, as well as the area within 100 feet of the mean annual boundaries of such depressions, to the extent that such habitat is within an area subject to protection under the Act, MGL c. 131, § 40, 310 CMR 10.02(1) as specified in §
191-2. These areas are essential breeding habitats, and provide other extremely important wildlife habitat functions during nonbreeding seasons as well, for a variety of amphibian species such as the wood frog (Rana sylvatica) and the spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum), and are important habitats for other wildlife species. Vernal pool habitat also includes the area within 200 feet of the mean annual boundaries of those vernal pools certified by the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP), if such pools are contained within the estimated or priority habitats for rare species as mapped by NHESP.