New York Laws
Title 27 - Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System
15-2703 - Definitions.

Except as otherwise required by the context, the following terms when
used in this act shall be construed as follows:

1. "Agency" means the Adirondack park agency as created by chapter
seven hundred and six of the laws of nineteen hundred seventy-one, and
whose functions, powers and duties are provided for in article
twenty-seven of the executive law.

2. "Commissioner" means the commissioner of environmental
conservation, his successors in office and any agency which may succeed
to the duties of such office.

3. "Development" means any activity which materially affects the
existing condition, use or appearance of any land, structure or
improvement including the actual or effective division or proposed
division of land into lots, parcels or sites whether contiguous or not,
for the purpose of sale, lease, license or any form of separate
ownership or occupancy as part of a common scheme or plan, (including
any grading, road construction, installation of utilities or other
improvements or any other development preparatory or incidental to any
such division) by any person or by any other person controlled by, under
common control with or controlling such person or by any group of
persons acting in concert as part of a common scheme or plan but shall
not include the division of any land resulting from bona fide devise,
inheritance, gift or the lease of land for hunting and fishing.

4. "Forest Management" means forestry practices, including harvesting
of a forest woodland or plantation, the construction, alteration or
maintenance of wood roads, skidways, landings and fences and related
research and educational activities.

5. "Free flowing" means existing or flowing in natural condition
without impoundment, diversion, straightening, riprapping, or other
modification of the waterway, except for stream improvement structures
for fisheries management purposes expressly authorized in section
15-2709 of this chapter.

6. "Improvement" means any change in or addition to land, including
but not limited to grading, filling, excavating or adding banks, fences,
dikes, ditches, pipelines, poles, electrical conduits, roads, streets,
curbs, gutters, sidewalks, driveways, parking lots or spaces.

7. "Motor vehicle" means a device for transporting personnel or
material, incorporating a motor or an engine of any type for propulsion
and with wheels, tracks, skids, skis, air cushion or other contrivance
for traveling on, or adjacent to land and water or through water.

8. "Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership, joint
venture, association, organization, government or any agency or
political subdivision thereof, or any other entity.

9. "River" means a flowing body of water or a section, portion or
tributary thereof, including rivers, streams, creeks, runs, kills,
rills, branches, or lakes. "River area" means the term river and the
land area in its immediate environs as established by the commissioner
or the agency, but not exceeding a width of one-half mile from each bank
thereof.

10. "Road" means any highway, hard-surfaced road, improved or dirt
road.

11. "Stream improvement structures for fishery management purposes"
means structures and improvements, including but not limited to, fish
barrier dams, fish passage structures, minor diking, cribbing, bank
stabilization and stream deflectors and other structures or improvements
designed solely for fishery management purposes which do not materially
alter the natural character of the waterway.

12. "Structure" means any object constructed, installed or parked on
land to facilitate land use, such as buildings, mobile homes, sheds,
signs, tanks, outdoor lighting and any fixtures, additions and
alterations thereto and trailers, travel trailers, campers, or tents
constructed, installed, or parked on land for other than a temporary
period or for a purpose other than transient occupancy and any fixtures,
additions or alterations thereto.

13. "System" means the rivers designated as wild, scenic and
recreational rivers in this part.