Massachusetts Statutes

Section 4. The director shall conduct investigations and consult with the natural heritage and endangered species advisory committee established pursuant to section five B of chapter one hundred and thirty-one in order to determine whether any species of plant or animal constitut…

Section 5. (a) Before any person alters a significant habitat, except as provided in paragraph (b) below or in paragraph four of section three, such person shall submit to the director the following: (i) full plans and a complete description of the project and the anticipated use…

Section 6. (a) Any person who violates the provisions of the first paragraph of section two or the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars or imprisonment for not more than ninety days or both such fine and i…

Section 7. The director may establish fees for environmental review and assessment pursuant to this chapter, the amount of which shall be determined in accordance with section 3B of chapter 7. Monies received by the commonwealth from fees collected under this chapter shall be cre…

Section 1. The commissioner of fish and game, in consultation with and through written agreement with the director of fisheries and wildlife and the director of marine fisheries, shall enter into an interstate wildlife violator compact on behalf of the commonwealth with any other…

Section 10. (a) The interstate wildlife violator compact may be amended. Amendments shall be presented in resolution form to the chair of the board of compact administrators and shall be initiated by 1 or more participating states. (b) Adoption of an amendment shall require endor…

Section 11. The interstate wildlife violator compact shall be liberally construed to effectuate the purposes stated herein. The provisions of the compact shall be severable and if any phrase, clause, sentence or provision of the compact is declared to be contrary to the constitut…

Section 2. (a) The participating states of the interstate wildlife violator compact find that: (i) wildlife resources are managed in trust by the participating states for the benefit of all residents and visitors; (ii) the protection of the wildlife resources of a state is materi…

Section 3. As used in this chapter, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise: ''Citation'', a summons, complaint, ticket, penalty assessment or other official document issued by a wildlife officer or peace officer for a w…

Section 4. (a) When issuing a citation for a wildlife violation, a wildlife officer shall issue a citation to a person whose primary residence is in a participating state in the same manner as though the person were a resident of the issuing state and shall not require that perso…

Section 5. (a) Upon receipt of a report of a failure of a violator to comply with the terms of a citation from the licensing authority of the issuing state, the licensing authority of the home state shall notify the violator, initiate a suspension action in accordance with the ho…

Section 6. (a) Notwithstanding subsections (a) and (b) of section 5, each participating home state may recognize the suspension of a person's license privileges by another participating issuing state even if the violation resulting in the suspension would not have been a violatio…

Section 7. Except as expressly required by the interstate wildlife violator compact, the compact shall not affect the right of any participating state to apply its laws relating to license privileges to a person or circumstance or to invalidate or prevent an agreement or other co…

Section 8. (a) For the purpose of administering the interstate wildlife violator compact and to serve as a governing body for the resolution of all matters relating to the compact, there shall be a board of compact administrators. The board shall be composed of 1 representative f…

Section 9. (a) The interstate wildlife violator compact shall become effective at such time as it is adopted in substantially similar form by not less than 2 states. (b) Entry into the compact shall be made by resolution of ratification executed by the authorized officials of the…

Section 1. The director of the division of forests and parks, in this chapter called the forester, in the department of environmental management, in this chapter called the department, shall promote the perpetuation, extension and proper management of the public and private fores…

Section 11. The chief superintendent may, subject to the approval of the commissioner, make rules and regulations governing all operations by cities and towns or persons for the purpose of suppressing gypsy and brown tail moths, tent caterpillars, cankerworms, oriental hag moths,…

Section 12. Whoever knowingly resists or obstructs the commissioner, any local superintendent or employee or authorized agent of any of them, while any of those persons is engaged in suppressing or eradicating the Asian longhorned beetle, oak wilt or any public nuisance described…

Section 12A. All persons in charge of land under the control of the commonwealth shall take measures on lands within their charge to suppress the public nuisances named in section eleven, and shall use such lawful means of suppression as the chief superintendent, with the approva…

Section 13. The city manager and the town manager in cities and towns having such a manager, otherwise the mayor in cities and the selectmen in towns, shall appoint for a term of three years a local superintendent of shade tree management and pest control, hereinafter called the …

Section 14. The financial liability, referred to in section eleven, of each city and town for the suppression of public nuisances named in section eleven shall be determined annually by the commissioner, who shall notify the city manager or town manager in cities and towns having…

Section 15. Each local superintendent shall render to the chief superintendent not later than the twenty-fifth day of each month a certified itemized statement of his expenditures during the preceding month, with vouchers showing separately the amounts expended on public lands an…

Section 16. Any city or town, which has a public shade tree inventory, not more than five years old, a public shade tree management plan approved by the state forester, and is in compliance with all requirements of law as well as any rules and regulations of the chief superintend…

Section 1A. The chief superintendent of the bureau of shade tree management and pest control shall act for the commonwealth in suppressing the pests declared in section eleven to be public nuisances, and in accordance with the provision of section thirteen of chapter twenty-one, …

Section 2. The commissioner of environmental management, in this chapter called the commissioner, with the approval of the governor and council, may accept on behalf of the commonwealth bequests or gifts to be used for the purpose of advancing the forestry interest of the commonw…

Section 25. The local superintendent in each city and town having charge of the suppression of the public nuisances referred to in section eleven shall have like jurisdiction over the suppression of all foliage-destroying pests within the limits of his city or town for which spec…

Section 26A. If the chief superintendent or the local superintendent or their employees or authorized agents shall find on public or private property elm trees or parts thereof infested or infected with or likely to become so infected or infested with the causal fungus of the Dut…

Section 26D. The county commissioners, subject to appropriation therefor, may grant to any city or town sums of money to aid in the suppression of the pests declared to be public nuisances in section eleven, and Dutch elm disease; provided, that no such payments shall be made unl…

Section 26E. Notice of positive diagnosis received by the chief superintendent or a local superintendent shall imply necessary condemnation of said elm tree and complete removal of the tree and destruction of the wood by burning or other method to render it harmless as a future s…

Section 26F. When notice of positive diagnosis is received by a local superintendent affecting elm trees or parts thereof on privately owned land within five hundred feet of public land, he shall so mark said trees or parts thereof with a sign, and shall give written notice in ha…

Section 26G. If an order issued under section twenty-six F is not complied with within the time prescribed or if the trees or parts thereof are not rendered harmless as a source of further infection or infestation by spraying or otherwise the local superintendent shall cause the …

Section 3. The forester shall from the money appropriated annually for the expenses of his office recompense the forest wardens for the time spent by them in making investigations under his direction, as required by section thirty-seven of this chapter and section twenty-five of …

Section 30. The commissioner, with the approval of the stewardship council may acquire for the commonwealth, by purchase or otherwise, and hold, or, with the approval of the governor and council, may take in fee by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine, any woodland or land s…

Section 31. Lands acquired under section thirty or thirty-three shall be known as state forests, and shall be under the control and management of the forester. Lands acquired by purchase for experiment and illustration in forest management and for reforestation under the provisio…

Section 32. The forester, subject to the approval of the commissioner, may expend such sums as are annually appropriated for the necessary expenses incurred under section thirty-one.

Section 34. The commissioner may make rules and regulations relative to hunting and fishing or other uses of any such land, provided that such rules and regulations shall be consistent with all laws in relation to the protection of fish, birds and quadrupeds. Whoever violates any…

Section 34A. The commissioner, with the approval of the governor and council, and after a public hearing, may sell or exchange any land acquired by the commonwealth under section thirty or thirty-three, chapter three hundred and forty-four of the acts of nineteen hundred and twen…

Section 35. Towns may acquire by purchase, gift or bequest lands for the purpose of forestation and may reclaim and plant such lands. The said department may upon application in such form as the forester may prescribe furnish such towns with seedlings for the planting of their la…

Section 37. Every local forest warden, in addition to his duties prescribed by chapter forty-eight, shall investigate the values of forest lands, the character and extent of woodcutting operations, the prevalence of insect pests injurious to forest growths, and other matters affe…

Section 38. The commissioner may lay out, construct and maintain trails or paths through or over lands in state forests and in public reservations and trails or paths leading to important mountains and other objects and places of special interest and beauty and he may connect suc…

Section 38A. The department of environmental management shall construct and maintain trails for horseback riding, hiking, ski touring, snowmobiling and other uses on land within its control in accordance with a plan for each area which will minimize conflicting uses. The departme…

Section 39. The mayor, selectmen or road commissioners, or the board or officer having charge of the maintenance and care of highways, if so authorized by the city council or by the town, may agree in writing, on behalf of such city or town, to contribute money, labor or material…

Section 4. The commissioner shall make annual reports of the acts of the forester and of the acts of the chief superintendent, which latter report shall include a statement of all sums expended from the funds of the commonwealth for the suppression of pests declared in section el…

Section 40. It is hereby declared that the public welfare requires the rehabilitation, maintenance, and protection of forest lands for the purpose of conserving water, preventing floods and soil erosion, improving the conditions for wildlife and recreation, protecting and improvi…

Section 41. The governor shall appoint a state forestry committee, to consist of eight members representing, respectively: forest land owners; primary woodusing industries; licensed timber harvesters; consulting foresters; environmental organizations; water supply agencies; fishe…

Section 42. Every owner of land who proposes to cut forest products on land devoted to forest purposes, or to cause such products to be cut, except as provided in section forty-four, shall send in accordance with guidelines posted by the department written notice of his intention…