Legislation
SECTION 45-0105
Definitions
Environmental Conservation (ENV) CHAPTER 43-B, ARTICLE 45
§ 45-0105. Definitions.
As used or referred to in this article unless a different meaning
clearly appears from the context:
1. The term "trust" shall mean the state nature and historical
preserve trust continued by section 45-0107 of this article.
2. The term "trustee" shall mean the commissioner of environmental
conservation.
3. The term "real property" shall mean lands and waters, including
improvements thereon, structures, and hereditaments, title to which may
be in fee simple absolute or any lesser interest, including but not
limited to, easements, rights of way, uses, leases, licenses and every
estate, interest or right, legal or equitable.
4. The term "preserve" shall mean the state nature and historical
preserve, as referred to in section 4 of article XIV of the State
Constitution.
5. The term "lands of ecological significance" shall mean state-owned
lands and waters that harbor plants, animals or ecological communities
that are rare in New York state or exemplary occurrences of more common
ecological communities. For the purposes of this article, the term
"exemplary occurrences of an ecological community" means a
representative, high quality example of a given ecological community
type, characterized by a distinctive assemblage of interacting plant and
animal populations, including old-growth forests.
6. The term "old-growth forest" shall mean a parcel of at least ten
acres which includes all of the following: an abundance of late
successional tree species, at least one hundred eighty to two hundred
years of age in a contiguous forested landscape that has evolved and
reproduced itself naturally, with the capacity for self perpetuation,
arranged in a stratified forest structure consisting of multiple growth
layers throughout the canopy and forest floor, featuring canopy gaps
formed by natural disturbances creating an uneven canopy and a
conspicuous absence of multiple stemmed trees and coppices. Typically,
old-growth forest sites also are characterized by an irregular forest
floor containing an abundance of coarse woody materials which are often
covered by mosses and lichens, show limited signs of human disturbance
since European settlement, have distinct soil horizons that include
definite organic, mineral, alluvial accumulation, and unconsolidated
layers, and have an understory that displays well developed and diverse
surface herbaceous layers.
As used or referred to in this article unless a different meaning
clearly appears from the context:
1. The term "trust" shall mean the state nature and historical
preserve trust continued by section 45-0107 of this article.
2. The term "trustee" shall mean the commissioner of environmental
conservation.
3. The term "real property" shall mean lands and waters, including
improvements thereon, structures, and hereditaments, title to which may
be in fee simple absolute or any lesser interest, including but not
limited to, easements, rights of way, uses, leases, licenses and every
estate, interest or right, legal or equitable.
4. The term "preserve" shall mean the state nature and historical
preserve, as referred to in section 4 of article XIV of the State
Constitution.
5. The term "lands of ecological significance" shall mean state-owned
lands and waters that harbor plants, animals or ecological communities
that are rare in New York state or exemplary occurrences of more common
ecological communities. For the purposes of this article, the term
"exemplary occurrences of an ecological community" means a
representative, high quality example of a given ecological community
type, characterized by a distinctive assemblage of interacting plant and
animal populations, including old-growth forests.
6. The term "old-growth forest" shall mean a parcel of at least ten
acres which includes all of the following: an abundance of late
successional tree species, at least one hundred eighty to two hundred
years of age in a contiguous forested landscape that has evolved and
reproduced itself naturally, with the capacity for self perpetuation,
arranged in a stratified forest structure consisting of multiple growth
layers throughout the canopy and forest floor, featuring canopy gaps
formed by natural disturbances creating an uneven canopy and a
conspicuous absence of multiple stemmed trees and coppices. Typically,
old-growth forest sites also are characterized by an irregular forest
floor containing an abundance of coarse woody materials which are often
covered by mosses and lichens, show limited signs of human disturbance
since European settlement, have distinct soil horizons that include
definite organic, mineral, alluvial accumulation, and unconsolidated
layers, and have an understory that displays well developed and diverse
surface herbaceous layers.