Get Noi Wetland Fee Transmittal Form

What is wetland vegetation? Wetland vegetation specifically grows in water or is adapted to a growing in soil that is at least periodically flooded with water. These wetland plants are also referred to as “hydrophytes”.

The WPA requires anyone performing agricultural activities within wetland areas, their 100-foot buffer zones, 200 feet of a perennial stream, or the 100-year floodplain and endangered species habitat to obtain a wetland permit from the local Conservation Commission (ConCom).

The wetland regulations prohibit most destruction of wetlands and naturally vegetated riverfront areas, and require replacement of flood storage loss when floodplains are filled. What activities are allowed? Most activities, such as construction, landscaping, and grading, require a permit.

The WPA requires anyone performing agricultural activities within wetland areas, their 100-foot buffer zones, 200 feet of a perennial stream, or the 100-year floodplain and endangered species habitat to obtain a wetland permit from the local Conservation Commission (ConCom).

Bogs, swamps, marshes, and wet meadows that border on water bodies are defined in the Wetlands Protection Act regulations (310 Code of Massachusetts Regulations 10.55) as Bordering Vegetated Wetlands (BVWs).

What are wetlands? Coastal wetlands are directly adjacent to the ocean and include beaches, salt marshes, dunes, coastal banks, rocky intertidal shores, and barrier beaches. Inland wetlands are areas where water is at or just below the surface of the ground.

Under the Act no one may “remove, fill, dredge, or alter” any wetland, floodplain, bank, land under a water body, land within 100 feet of a wetland, or land within 200 feet of a perennial stream or river (25 feet of a few urban rivers), without a permit (known as an Order of Conditions) from the local conservation ...

Any project within 100 feet of wetland or 200 feet of a perennial stream requires a wetland permit. All projects within the 100-year floodplain and endangered species habitat are required to obtain permits too. Those maps can be found online or in the Conservation Office.