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LEGISLATION PASSED ON FOREST
PRACTICES
Public Act 98-228, An Act Concerning Regulation of
Forest Practices, was passed by the Connecticut General
Assembly on a nearly unanimous vote of both the House and
Senate and was signed into law by Connecticut Governor John
G.Rowland on June 8, 1998.
The purpose of the legislation as proposed is to
correct a problem which would arise following the adoption
of Forest Practice Regulations by the Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) whereby certified forest
practitioners would be required to pay a fee to the DEP when
registering proposed forest practices and they would also be
required to pay a fee to those municipalities regulating
forest practices.
The new legislation allows the towns that are
currently regulating forest practices to continue to do so
provided their regulations are consistent with those of the
DEP, which are currently in the process of development. The
towns listed in Public Act 98-228 are: Berlin, Brookfield,
Chester, Deep River, East Haddam, Essex, Glastonbury,
Granby, Haddam, Kent, Lyme, Newtown, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook,
Redding, Stafford, Somers, Warren, Washington and
Willington.
Municipalities that are not listed in the act which
were regulating forest practices as of January 1, 1998 may
apply to the Commissioner of DEP for approval to administer
forest practice regulations and the Commissioner may approve
such regulations if he finds that a program was in existence
as of that date and that it follows standards provided by
the Connecticut Resource Conservation and Development
Forestry Committee.
The act also requires training in a program on forest
practices by at least one member of the inland wetlands
agency. The legislation provides that the municipalities
regulating forest practices will eventually have the
regulatory authority vested in their inland wetlands
agency.
The Commissioner of Environmental Protection will
regulate forest practices in municipalities not covered in
the provisions of Public Act 98-228.
It is anticipated that the State Forester will be
meeting with the Forest Practices Act Advisory Board and at
that time he will indicate how he plans to proceed with
implementation of the legislation.
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