Massachusetts Statutes

Section 2. The position of commissioner shall be classified in accordance with section forty-five of chapter thirty and the salary shall be determined in accordance with section forty-six C of said chapter thirty, and the commissioner shall receive traveling expenses incurred in …

Section 22. Notwithstanding the requirements of sections forty F to forty I, inclusive, of chapter seven, the department may acquire non-development covenants for terms of limited duration. The department shall adopt regulations to carry out the provisions of this section. Non-de…

Section 23. (a) The secretary of environmental affairs shall establish a program to assist the commonwealth in the acquisition of agricultural preservation restrictions as defined in section 31 of chapter 184, for land actively devoted to agricultural or horticultural uses pursua…

Section 24. (a) There shall be an agricultural lands preservation committee in the department of agricultural resources. The committee shall consist of the commissioner of agricultural resources, who shall be the chair, the secretary of environmental affairs, the secretary of hou…

Section 25. The agricultural lands preservation committee shall prepare an annual report. The report shall include the number and geographic distribution of applications accepted and rejected, the acreage and costs of purchases, and such other information as will enable the progr…

Section 26. Land under agricultural preservation restrictions, while actively devoted to agricultural, horticultural or agricultural and horticultural use as defined in sections 1 to 5, inclusive, of chapter 61A, shall be assessed for general property tax purposes at values no gr…

Section 27. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the department may offer farm viability technical assistance and implementation funding to an owner of land subject to an agricultural preservation restriction, as defined by section 31 of chapter 184 if such…

Section 28. (a) For the purposes of this section and section 29, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings:— ''Agriculture'', farming in all of its branches and the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing and har…

Section 29. There shall be established and set upon the books of the commonwealth a separate fund to be known as the Farm Capital Linked Loan Fund, consisting of revenues received under subsection (b) of section 28, including any interest or investment earnings on such monies and…

Section 3. The commissioner shall be the executive and administrative head of the department and shall have charge of the administration and enforcement of all laws which it is the duty of the department to administer and enforce, and shall direct all inspections and investigatio…

Section 30. (a) There shall be established a Massachusetts dairy promotion board which shall consist of 9 members: 1 of whom shall be the secretary of administration and finance or his designee; 1 of whom shall be the commissioner of the department of agricultural resources or hi…

Section 31. There shall be established and set upon the books of the commonwealth a separate fund to be known as the Dairy Promotion Trust Fund, consisting of revenues received pursuant to subsection (d) of section 30, including any interest or investment earnings on such monies …

Section 32. There shall be established and set upon the books of the commonwealth an Agricultural Inspection and Infrastructure Trust Fund, consisting of: (i) fee revenues from apiary inspections under sections 32 and 35 of chapter 128, poultry inspections under section 124 of ch…

Section 33. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the secretary of energy and environmental affairs shall establish a program to acquire by purchase, gift, lease, eminent domain or otherwise lands and waters and easements therein to protect and conserve land…

Section 4. The commissioner, with the approval of the board of food and agriculture, may appoint an assistant commissioner and with like approval may remove him.

Section 5. The position of assistant commissioner shall be classified in accordance with section forty-five of chapter thirty and the salary shall be determined in accordance with section forty-six C of said chapter thirty, and the assistant commissioner shall receive traveling e…

Section 6. The commissioner shall organize the department into divisions and bureaus and shall assign to said divisions their functions. The commissioner, with the approval of the board, may appoint a director to each division and a chief to each bureau thereunder, to have charge…

Section 6A. There shall be established an intern scholarship program which shall be administered by the commissioner. The commissioner, subject to appropriation and grants from other sources, may grant scholarships providing for the payment of room, board, tuition and other fees …

Section 6B. There shall be in the department a committee to be known as the equine advisory committee which shall consist of seven members to be appointed by the commissioner. Two members shall be nominated by the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation, one by the Massachusetts Ass…

Section 6C. (a) There shall be established a Massachusetts food policy council, hereinafter referred to as the council. The council shall consist of 18 members, 1 of whom shall be a member of the house of representatives; 1 of whom shall be a member of the senate; 1 of whom shall…

Section 1. There shall be a department of conservation and recreation, in this chapter called the ''department''. It shall be the duty of said department to exercise general care and oversight of the natural resources of the commonwealth and of its adjacent waters; to make invest…

Section 11. The division may employ such technical and clerical assistance and consultants as may be necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of the division as specified in section nine. The division may establish rules and regulations as may be necessary for the proper adminis…

Section 12. Applications for assistance under the federal Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act shall be initiated by the local organization, and may not be initiated by the division. Such applications shall be filed with the division, which may disapprove the same within…

Section 13. The division shall require, as a condition to providing assistance from the commonwealth for the installation and operation and maintenance of works of improvement, that local organizations shall (1) assume responsibility for all planning for works of improvement to b…

Section 14. At such time as the United States Secretary of Agriculture and the interested local organization have agreed upon a plan for works of improvement, the division may (1) assume such proportionate share of the nonfederal cost of installing any works of improvement involv…

Section 15. At such time as the United States Secretary of Agriculture and the interested local organization have agreed upon a plan for works of improvement, and the local organization has met the requirements for receiving assistance from the commonwealth in installing, operati…

Section 17C. (a) Any person having an interest in land including the structures, buildings, and equipment attached to the land, including without limitation, railroad and utility corridors, easements and rights of way, wetlands, rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, and other bodies of …

Section 17D. An owner of land who permits the public to use such land for the removal of fuel wood without imposing a charge or fee therefor shall not be liable to any member of the public who uses said land for the aforesaid purpose for injuries to person or property sustained b…

[There is no 21:17E.]

Section 17G. (a) For purposes of this section, the words ''nonprofit organization'' and ''volunteer'' shall have the same meaning as used in 42 U.S.C. 14505. (b) The department of conservation and recreation may cosponsor and participate in an event or activity on department prop…

Section 18. The division of conservation services within the office of the secretary of the executive office of environmental affairs shall be under the administrative supervision of a director who shall be called the director of conservation services. The director shall be quali…

Section 19. There shall be in the division a commission for conservation of soil, water and related resources, hereinafter called the state commission. Said commission shall consist of thirteen voting members. The thirteen voting members shall include four ex-officio and nine app…

Section 2. The department shall be under the control of a stewardship council, which shall consist of 13 persons to be appointed by the governor in the manner provided in section 2A for terms of 7 years.

Section 20. The state commission, unless otherwise specified, shall have the following powers and duties:— (1) To encourage and assist educational work in the conservation and development of renewable natural resources, including soil, water, plant life, woodland, fish and wildli…

Section 21. Whenever the state commission receives a petition signed by at least one hundred land occupiers, herein defined as owners, lessees or tenants in possession, residing within an area proposed for the establishment of a conservation district, or whenever the state commis…

Section 22. Within sixty days after the state commission has established a conservation district it shall appoint a board of no less than five no more than seven district supervisors who shall be individual land occupiers residing on or owning land within the district. Supervisor…

Section 23. The supervisors of a conservation district shall be the governing body thereof. They shall designate from their membership a chairman and may from time to time change such designation. They may delegate to one or more of their members such powers and duties as they sh…

Section 24. A conservation district and its supervisors shall, in addition to any other powers granted under sections 21 to 25, inclusive, have the following powers and duties: (1) To conduct surveys, investigations and research relating to the conservation and development of nat…

Section 25. The supervisors of any two or more districts may co-operate and enter into agreements with one another in the exercise of any or all powers conferred by sections eighteen to twenty-five, inclusive.

Section 25A. Conservation district divisions established pursuant to section twenty may exercise any and all powers set forth in sections twenty-one to twenty-five, inclusive.

Section 26. There shall be in the department of environmental protection, a division of water pollution control, hereinafter in this section and in sections twenty-seven to fifty-three, inclusive, called the division. The division shall be headed by a director who shall be appoin…

Section 26A. Unless the context otherwise requires, when used in sections twenty-six to fifty-three, inclusive, the following words shall have the following meanings: ''Abatement facilities'', facilities for the purpose of treating, neutralizing, or stabilizing sewage and such in…

Section 27. It shall be the duty and responsibility of the division to enhance the quality and value of water resources and to establish a program for prevention, control, and abatement of water pollution. Said division shall: (1) Encourage or require the adoption and execution b…

Section 27A. (a) The department of environmental protection shall cooperate with the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust established by chapter twenty-nine C to achieve the water pollution abatement objectives of the commonwealth intended to be advanced by th…

Section 28. (a) The division is hereby authorized, with the approval of the water resources commission, to propose water pollution abatement districts consisting of one or more cities or towns, or designated parts thereof, for the purposes set forth in section thirty. The distric…

Section 29. Each district shall be a body politic and corporate and shall have a commission to be known as the district commission. Except as provided in the following paragraph, the district commission shall consist of two members from each town included in whole or in part in t…