As used in this act:
"Assistant Commissioner" means the Assistant Commissioner of Natural and Historic Resources in the Department of Environmental Protection.
"Certified" means having completed and received the certification from a program of education, approved by the department, about the design and implementation of prescribed burns that, upon completion, results in issuance of a certification to the participant. "Certified" shall not mean completion of the training provided by the Forest Fire Service.
"Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection."
"Forest Fire Service" means the Forest Fire Service in the Department of Environmental Protection.
"Landowner or lessee" means (1) the person responsible for the land upon which a prescribed burn is to be conducted who (a) either owns or leases the land, and (b) has full access and control of the land at all times during the prescribed burn; or (2) an agent, employee, or other representative of that person who, for the purposes of complying with this act, (a) is authorized to act on the person's behalf, and (b) has full access and control of the land at all times during the prescribed burn.
"Mechanically manage vegetation" means to mow or cut vegetation to reduce wildland fire fuels contained in the forest or other open lands.
"Person" means an individual, trust, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, society, association, joint stock company, corporation, public corporation or public authority, estate, receiver, trustee, assignee, referee, fiduciary and any other legal entity.
"Prescribed burn" or "prescribed burning" means the deliberate ignition and controlled open burning of wildland fire fuels, under specified environmental conditions which allow the fire to be confined to a predetermined area and produces the fireline intensity and rate of spread required to attain planned resource management objectives such as public safety, wildfire control, ecological, silvicultural, agricultural, or other natural resource management purposes.
"Prescribed burn plan" or "plan" means a written plan prepared in accordance with this act and the rules and regulations adopted pursuant to section 7 thereof, for starting, executing, and controlling a prescribed burn.
"Wildland fire fuels" means fuels including herbaceous and other plant life found in forests, fields, grasslands, coastal marshlands and other open lands whether in their natural state or having been cut.
N.J.S. § 13:9-44.13