Town of Harvard, MA General Provisions

These regulations are promulgated to create a uniform process and to clarify and define the provisions of the 2006 Wetlands Protection Bylaw as amended, hereafter called the "Bylaw," administered by the Harvard Conservation Commission, hereafter called the "Commission."

Because the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act was designed to be used throughout the Commonwealth and because, by necessity, Acts by the State Legislature often must balance conflicting interests, the special needs and circumstances of specific municipalities may not be adequately addressed.

This additional protection is important to Harvard for several reasons:

(1)

Almost all Harvard residents are served by private wells and septic systems. Of the more than 1,800 housing units in Harvard, only 97 have hook-ups to public wells. Unlike cities/towns with a few municipal wells which have protection zones around them, each one of our private wells must be protected.

(2)

Bare Hill Pond, designated a "Great Pond" by the State, offers boat access to the general public and swimming off a Town beach for residents, and is an important natural and recreational asset to the Town and the Commonwealth. Due to the location of a Town well adjacent to the pond, the pond is protected by State Zone 2 Aquifer Regulations protecting public water supplies.

(3)

As the home of headwaters to streams that carry water through a good portion of northeastern Massachusetts, Harvard is blessed with relatively high quality surface water and a responsibility to protect these headwaters. Water in Harvard flows into three large watersheds that ultimately drain to the Atlantic at Newburyport via the Nashua, Concord, and Merrimack Rivers.

(4)

Bowers Brook, Harvard's major perennial stream, flows across the length of Harvard from south to north. Extensive wetlands of red maple swamp and hummocked shrub swamp extend around many portions of the watercourse and serve to regulate the stream's flow, cleanse the water, and provide habitat for diverse wildlife. The area from Bolton Flats in Bolton to Mirror Lake within Harvard's historic boundaries of the former Fort Devens is designated a MA BioMap2 Core Habitat and is a state-designated Priorty Habitat Area.

(5)

Riparian habitat bordered by scrub-shrub and emergent wetlands is found along the Nashua River in Bolton Flats and the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge and along Bowers Brook and Bennets Brook.

(6)

In the southeast quadrant of Harvard flood control dams protecting the Assabet River have created a 103 acre pond complex and equivalent acreage of freshwater marsh. This entire Delaney Wildlife Management Area is designated a MA NHESP 2017 Priority Habitat of State listed Rare Species and Estimated Habitat of Rare Wildlife.

(7)

There are numerous vernal pools within the boundaries of Harvard which are critical wildlife breeding habitat. These ephemeral pools, which can range in size from large puddles to multi-acre ponds, are of special value because their unique characteristics provide essential breeding habitat to a number of invertebrate and amphibian species that can live nowhere else. A host of additional wildlife species also use these pools and adjacent uplands and many species of amphibians live their lives within range of their natal pool, migrating back to the pool only for a few days each year for breeding purposes.

This chapter sets forth a public review and decision-making process to protect wetlands and adjoining land areas by controlling activities deemed likely to have a significant (or cumulative) impact on wetland values, including, but not limited to the following:

(1)

Protection of public and private water supplies;

(2)

Protection of groundwater;

(3)

Flood control;

(4)

Erosion control;

(5)

Storm damage control and prevention;

(6)

Prevention of pollution;