01-669-27 Me. Code R. § 2

Current through 2024-51, December 18, 2024

Section 669-27-2 - Definitions

For the purposes of 12 M.R.S., Chapter 805, sub-chapter 3-A, and for these rules, the following terms have the following meanings unless the context otherwise requires. Unless otherwise provided herein, this rule incorporates by reference the definitions contained in MFS Rule Chapter 20 (Forest Regeneration and Clearcutting Standards).

A.Agricultural Management Activities mean land clearing if the land topography is not altered, tilling, fertilizing, including spreading and disposal of manure, liming, planting, pesticide application, harvesting or cultivating crops, pasturing of livestock, minor drainage and maintenance of drainage, and other similar or related activities, but not the construction, creation or maintenance of land management roads, nor the land application of septage, sludge and other residuals and related storage and composting activities.

B.Areas of Special Flood Hazard means lands in the floodplain having a one percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year, as specifically identified in a Flood Insurance Study, where available, and/or as determined on the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), Flood Hazard Boundary Map (FHBM), or the Commission's Land Use Guidance Map.

C.Base Flood means a flood having a one percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year, commonly called the 100-year flood.

D.Bureau means the Maine Bureau of Forestry, Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, otherwise known as the Maine Forest Service.

E.Commission means the Maine Land Use Planning Commission.

F.Critically Imperiled Natural Community (S1) means an assemblage of plants, animals and their common environment that is extremely rare in Maine(five or fewer occurrences or very few remaining acres) or vulnerable to extirpation from the state due to some aspect of its biology. An example of an S1 community that occurs in freshwater wetlands is the Outwash Plain Pondshore community.

G.Cross-sectional area of a stream channel is determined by multiplying the stream channel width by the average stream channel depth. The stream channel width is the straight line distance from the normal high water line on one side of the channel to the normal high water line on the opposite side of the channel. The average stream channel depth is the average of the vertical distances from a straight line between the normal high water lines of the stream channel to the bottom of the channel.

H.Development means any land use activity or activities directed toward using, reusing or rehabilitating air space, land, water or other natural resources, excluding, however, such specific uses or classes and categories of uses which by the terms of this chapter do not require a permit.

I.Flood or Flooding means:

1. A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from:

a. The overflow of inland or tidal waters.

b. The unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source.

2. The collapse or subsidence of land along the shore of a lake or other body of water as a result of erosion or undermining caused by waves or currents of water exceeding anticipated cyclical levels or suddenly caused by an unusually high water level in a natural body of water, accompanied by a severe storm, or by an unanticipated force of nature, such as a flash flood or an abnormal tidal surge, or by some similarly unusual and unforeseeable event which results in flooding.

J.Flood Boundary and Floodway Map (FBFM) means an official map of a township, plantation or town, issued by the Federal Insurance Administrator, where the boundaries of the base flood and floodway have been designated.

K.Flood Elevation Study means an examination, evaluation and determination of flood hazards and, if appropriate, corresponding water surface elevations.

L.Flood Hazard Boundary Map (FHBM) means an official map of a township, plantation or town, issued by the Federal Insurance Administrator, where the boundaries of the base flood have been designated.

M. Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) means an official map of a township, plantation or town, on which the Federal Insurance Administrator has delineated both the special hazard areas and the risk premium zones applicable to the community.

N.Flood Insurance Study (FIS): See Flood Elevation Study.

O.Floodplain or Flood Prone Area means any land susceptible to being inundated by water from any source (see Flood or Flooding).

P.Forest Management Activities include timber cruising and other forest resource evaluation activities, pesticide or fertilizer application, timber stand improvement, pruning, timber harvesting and other forest harvesting, regeneration of forest stands, and other similar or associated activities, but not the construction, creation, or maintenance of land management roads.

Q.Forest Products mean logs, pulpwood, veneer, boltwood, wood chips, stud wood, poles, pilings, biomass fuel wood, fuel wood or other products commonly know as forest products. It does not include Christmas trees, maple syrup, and nursery products used for ornamental purposes, wreaths, bough material, cones or other seed crops.

R.Gravel Extraction means any extraction of a deposit of sand, fill or gravel pit less than five acres in size.

S.Gravel Pit means a mining operation less than five acres in size undertaken primarily to extract and remove sand, fill or gravel.

T.Imperiled Natural Community (S2) means an assemblage of plants, animals and their common environment that is rare in Maine (6-20 occurrences or few remaining acres) or vulnerable to further decline. Examples of S2 communities that occur in freshwater wetlands are Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, Alpine Bog-Meadow, Circumneutral Fen, Maritime Slope Bog, and Coastal Plain Pocket Swamp.

U.Land Management Road means a road consisting of a bed of exposed soil or gravel constructed and used primarily for agricultural or forest management activities, but not including skid trails, skid roads, and winter haul roads.

V.National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD)

The national vertical datum, whose standard was established in 1929, which is used by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). NGVD was based upon mean sea level in 1929 and also has been called "1929 Mean Sea Level (MSL)."

W.Normal High Water Line means that line which is apparent from visible markings, changes in the character of soils due to prolonged action of the water or changes in vegetation, and which distinguishes between predominantly aquatic and predominantly terrestrial land. In the case of nonforested freshwater wetlands adjacent to streams and other water bodies, the normal high water line is the upland edge of the freshwater wetland, not the edge of the open water.

X.Normal High Water Line of Tidal Waters means that line on the shore of tidal waters reached by the shoreward limit of the rise of the medium tides between the spring and the neap, commonly referred to as the mean high water level. This line may be identified where appropriate by discerning the debris line left by tidal action.

Y.North American Vertical Datum (NAVD) means the national datum, established in 1988, which is the new vertical datum used by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for all new Flood Insurance Rate Maps.

Z.Regulatory Floodway means the channel of a river or other flowing water and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than one foot. When not designated on the township's, plantation's, or town's Flood Insurance Rate Map, Flood Boundary and Floodway Map, or Flood Hazard Boundary Map, it is considered to be the channel of a river or other flowing water and the adjacent land areas to a distance of one-half the width of the floodplain, as measured from the normal high water mark to the upland limit of the floodplain.

AA.Responsible party means all of the following persons or entities, jointly and severally:

1. The landowner, or landowners, who owned the property at the time a timber harvest subject to this rule was conducted;

2. The landowner's designated agent at the time a timber harvest subject to this rule was conducted;

3. The Licensed Forester and/or the employer of the Licensed Forester who:

a. Signed the harvest plan for a timber harvest subject to this rule; or

b. Supervised a timber harvest subject to this rule; or

c. Certified that a timber harvest subject to this rule was conducted in accordance with a timber harvest plan required by this rule.

4. The timber harvester who conducted a timber harvest subject to this rule.

BB.Skid Road or Skid Trail means a route repeatedly used by forwarding machinery or animal to haul or drag forest products from the stump to the yard or landing, the construction of which requires minimal excavation.

CC.Stream channel means a channel between defined banks created by the action of surface water, which is characterized by the lack of terrestrial vegetation or by the presence of a bed, devoid of topsoil, containing waterborne deposits or exposed soil parent material or bedrock; and which is connected hydrologically with other water bodies. "Stream channel" does not include rills or gullies forming because of accelerated erosion in disturbed soils where the natural vegetative cover has been removed by human activity.

DD.Timber Harvesting means the cutting or removal of timber for the primary purpose of selling or processing forest products.

EE.Timber Harvesting and Related Activities means timber harvesting, the construction and maintenance of land management roads, the mining of gravel less than five acres, water crossings on/for land management roads, and other activities conducted to facilitate timber harvesting.

FF.Unorganized and Deorganized Areas means "Unorganized and deorganized areas includes all unorganized and deorganized townships, plantations that have not received Commission approval under section 685-A, subsection 4 to implement their own land use controls, municipalities that have organized since 1971 but have not received Commission approval under section 685-A, subsection 4 to implement their own land use controls and all other areas of the State that are not part of an organized municipality except Indian reservations." 12 M.R.S.A. §682.

GG.Vegetative Clearing means cutting, mowing, trimming, damaging, killing, or removing plants from a site.

HH.Violation means the failure of an activity to be fully compliant with all applicable provisions of this rule.

II.Water Crossing means any timber harvesting and related activity involving the passage of ground-based equipment from one side to the opposite side of a water body, or to an island or upland within a water body. Such activities include, but are not limited to construction of roads, fords, bridges, and culverts, as well as maintenance work on these crossings.

JJ.Winter Haul Road means a route or track across frozen ground or compacted snow and ice used primarily for access to a yard or landing. It does not include a road with a gravel surface.

KK.Zones A, AE, A1-30, VE mean areas identified by FEMA as areas of special flood hazard on Flood Insurance Rate Maps or Flood Hazard Boundary Maps.

01-669 C.M.R. ch. 27, § 2