Title 23 — Title 23: Parks, Forests and Public Shade Trees

Sec. 23-4a. Lands of public use and benefit. Conservation and preservation restrictions on department lands. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection may designate lands owned by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection as lands of public use and benef…

Sec. 23-4b. Prohibition of use of cannabis on state lands or waters managed by department. Penalty. The use of cannabis shall be prohibited on any state lands or waters managed by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Any person who violates such prohibition shal…

Sec. 23-4c. Hazardous tree mitigation policy. Requirements. Tree replanting demonstration project. Report. (a) Not later than August 1, 2022, the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection shall develop, finalize and publish on the Department of Energy and Environmental …

Sec. 23-4d. State park hazardous tree removal report. Not later than January 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection shall submit a report, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4, to the joint standing committee of the …

Sec. 23-5. Public reservations; supervision. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection shall have charge and supervision of all lands acquired by the state, as public reservations, for the purposes of public recreation or the preservation of natural beauty or histor…

Sec. 23-5a. Natural area preserves. Declaration of policy. Connecticut is a state of relatively small area, undergoing rapid industrialization and rapid diminution of areas remaining in their natural condition. It is, therefore, declared to be the public policy that carefully sel…

Sec. 23-5b. Definitions. As used in sections 23-5a to 23-5i, inclusive: (1) “Natural area” means an area of land or water, or land and water, containing, or potentially containing, plant or animal life or features of biological, scientific, educational, geological, paleontologica…

Sec. 23-5c. Natural area preserves system. The commissioner shall establish a system of natural area preserves and shall have responsibility for selection, care, control, supervision and management of all natural area preserves within the system to the extent of the interest held…

Sec. 23-5d. Approval of preserve. (a) The commissioner may approve a natural area preserve only upon the recommendation of the Natural Area Preserves Advisory Committee and only after public hearing and upon notice. The notice required by this section shall set forth the substanc…

Sec. 23-5e. Alienation. (a) An area designated as a natural area preserve is declared to be put to its highest, best and most important use for public benefit and no interest therein owned by the state shall be alienated or put to any use other than as a natural area preserve, ex…

Sec. 23-5f. Advisory committee. Section 23-5f is repealed. (1969, P.A. 727, S. 6; 1971, P.A. 872, S. 164; P.A. 77-614, S. 609, 610.)

Sec. 23-5g. Cooperation with federal agencies. The commissioner is authorized to cooperate with any federal governmental agency in carrying out any provisions of sections 23-5a to 23-5i, inclusive. (1969, P.A. 727, S. 7; 1971, P.A. 872, S. 165.) History: 1971 act replaced referen…

Sec. 23-5h. Acquisition of property. The commissioner is authorized to acquire real property or any interest therein for natural area preserves by purchase, gift or devise. The commissioner is authorized to accept any gift or bequest of money or other personal property to be used…

Sec. 23-5i. Responsibility of other public authorities. Nothing in sections 23-5a to 23-5i, inclusive, shall limit any other duly appointed public authority from exercising responsibility related to the suppression of fire, or any noxious insect, animal or plant, when such action…

Sec. 23-6. Maintenance of state park and forest lands adjoining other states. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection is authorized to cooperate with any official or agency having similar authority in any adjoining state for the care and maintenance of state park …

Sec. 23-7. Memorials in state parks and reservations. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection may erect, or permit to be erected, upon any state park, ground or reservation any suitable monument, memorial or memorial tablet in commemoration of the services of any …

Sec. 23-8. Open spaces for recreation. State goal for acquisition of open space. State-owned lands valuable for conservation purposes. Public use and benefit land registry. Content. (a) The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection shall have power, acting by himself or…

Sec. 23-8a. Conveyance of certain state land previously held as protected open space. On and after June 29, 1999, any person, organization or political subdivision of the state to whom the state proposes to convey state park land, forest land or other state land held as protected…

Sec. 23-8b. Purchase of certain water company land in Fairfield County. Requirements for preservation. Jurisdiction by certain officers and patrolmen. (a) Any contract for the protection of open space entered into by the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection with BH…

Sec. 23-9. Acquisition of property by eminent domain. The commissioner is authorized to take land or any interest therein by right of eminent domain in the manner provided for in section 48-12 for the public purposes for which it is authorized to acquire land under the provisions…

Sec. 23-9a. Acquisition of easements for maintenance of dams. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection may acquire by purchase, lease or gift, or by condemnation in the manner provided by part I of chapter 835, such land, easements or rights-of-way as are needed in…

Sec. 23-9b. West Rock Ridge conservation area and supplement. Notice requirements re land use changes or transfers. (a) The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection shall review the West Rock Ridge conservation area established in special act 75-80, as amended by speci…

Sec. 23-28. Membership; meetings. Obsolete. (1949 Rev., S. 3468.)

Sec. 23-29. Powers. The commissioner may, in the name and for the use of the state, accept any gift or any interest in real or personal property to be used by the department for any park or forest purpose, for the purpose of propagation and protection of wildlife, for public shoo…

Sec. 23-30. Leasing of land. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection may, for the purposes specified in section 23-29, lease, for a period of not less than ninety-nine years, any lands within the state, title to which has been acquired by the resettlement administ…

Sec. 23-31. Acquisition of property for development as state forests. (a) The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection may accept gifts, donations or contributions of land suitable for forestry or park purposes and enter into cooperative agreements with the federal gov…

Sec. 23-32. Improvement of forest lands. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection may repair and construct dams, open up abandoned roads for fire control, or make any other improvement which, in the judgment of said commissioner, is necessary for the immediate use …

Sec. 23-32a. Study re sustainable harvesting of forests. Plan based on study results. Report. (a) On or before July 1, 2009, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection may, within existing budgetary resources and in consultation with the Connecticut Agricultural Experi…

Sec. 23-33. Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection to be State Forest Fire Warden. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection shall be, ex officio, State Forest Fire Warden and shall receive no additional compensation therefor, but necessary traveling an…

Sec. 23-34. Prosecutorial powers of State Forest Fire Warden. Section 23-34 is repealed, effective October 1, 2001. (1949 Rev., S. 3474; 1961, P.A. 517, S. 104; P.A. 74-183, S. 250, 291; P.A. 76-436, S. 214, 681; P.A. 01-150, S. 20.)

Sec. 23-35. Fire-fighting crews. The State Forest Fire Warden shall equip trained fire-fighting crews at major department field facilities and maintain them during periods when forest fires are most likely to occur. Such crews shall be prepared to respond to requests for assistan…

Sec. 23-36. Powers and duties of State Forest Fire Warden. The State Forest Fire Warden may take such action as said warden deems necessary to provide for the prevention and control of forest fires. Said warden may enter into agreements with federal agencies, with cities, borough…

Sec. 23-37. Powers and duties of state forest fire control personnel and district and deputy fire wardens. Temporary emergency workers. (a) State forest fire control personnel and district and deputy fire wardens shall, under the supervision of the State Forest Fire Warden, use a…

Sec. 23-37a. Forest fire-fighting equipment for fire companies. Upon written request by any fire company which may be called upon to fight forest fires, the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection shall provide such company, from reserves available to the commissioner…

Sec. 23-37b. Forest fire-fighting equipment account. (a) There is established within the General Fund a separate account to be known as the forest fire-fighting equipment account, for the purpose of providing money for the purchase by the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental …

Sec. 23-37c. Termination of forest fire-fighting equipment account. Section 23-37c is repealed. (P.A. 84-347, S. 2, 5; P.A. 86-312, S. 10, 21; P.A. 87-500, S. 1, 3; P.A. 89-351, S. 10, 11.)

Sec. 23-38. Posting of notices containing fire laws. State forest fire control personnel may post such notices relating to forest fires and the statutes concerning fires as the State Forest Fire Warden prepares, and any person who wilfully or maliciously tears down or destroys an…

Sec. 23-39. Compensation of wardens and firefighters. The compensation of district and deputy fire wardens, trained firefighters organized in accordance with rules issued by the State Forest Fire Warden and such laborers as said warden finds it necessary to employ shall be fixed …

Sec. 23-40. Patrol personnel. The State Forest Fire Warden may appoint patrol personnel, who shall receive compensation for the time actually employed, and may establish and equip fire lookout stations and furnish necessary equipment for such patrol personnel. Any patrol personne…

Sec. 23-41. Disposal of receipts. All sums received by the State Treasurer from railroad companies or from any other source, as reimbursement for expenses incurred by the State Forest Fire Warden or his deputies in the performance of their duties, shall be deposited in the Genera…

Sec. 23-42. Liability of railroads for damages caused by sparks. Any railroad company which, through act of its employees or agents, by sparks from its locomotives or otherwise, sets fire to trees, brush or grass on lands outside the right-of-way of such company, shall be liable …

Sec. 23-43. Determination of railroad fire hazards. The State Forest Fire Warden may, at any time, bring a petition in writing to the Commissioner of Transportation, describing such portions of the right-of-way of any railroad company operating a railroad in this state, and land …

Sec. 23-44. Protection from railroad fire hazards. As to any portion of any railroad right-of-way and contiguous land that may be found by the Commissioner of Transportation to constitute such a fire hazard, the commissioner, upon motion of said commissioner or at the request of …

Sec. 23-45. Regulations by commissioner. Violations. Penalty. The Commissioner of Transportation is authorized to make and enforce such rules and regulations as may be required to carry out the provisions of sections 23-43 and 23-44 and may, at any time, for cause shown, upon hea…

Sec. 23-46. Removal of cut brush along highways. Penalty. (a) No person, firm or corporation and no agent of any state department or town shall pile and leave piled for a period of more than ten days any cut brush, tree-growth or other inflammable material, except farm products, …

Sec. 23-47. Forest fire hazards. In case of emergency, when down timber, parts of trees or brush, within two hundred feet of any highway, creates an unusual fire hazard that may endanger life or property, the State Forest Fire Warden, with the written consent or at the written di…

Sec. 23-48. Kindling fire in the open. Penalty. Any person who kindles or directs another to kindle a fire in the open air, without proper authorization from state or local authorities or any person who burns materials that are prohibited from being burned by any provision of the…

Sec. 23-49. Permits for kindling fires. Exemptions. Section 23-49 is repealed. (1949 Rev., S. 3490; 1949, 1953, 1955, S. 1885d; 1961, P.A. 543; 1969, P.A. 671, S. 5.)

Sec. 23-49a. Declaration of burning ban; special burning permit; penalty; exemptions. (a) No person shall kindle or use fire in the open air within one hundred feet of woodland, brushland, or area containing dried grass that is adjacent to any woodland or brushland, when the fore…

Sec. 23-50. Closing of forests by the Governor. Whenever it appears to the Governor that by reason of extreme drought or other hazardous conditions there is danger of forest fires, he may proclaim that any or all sections of woodland and brush land in the state shall be closed, f…