Ch. 646

LAWS OF MARYLAND

BY repealing and reenacting, without amendments,

Article - Natural Resources

Section 8-1815

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1983 Replacement Volume and 1988 Supplement)

BY adding to

Article - Natural Resources

Section 8-1817 8-1815.1

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1983 Replacement Volume and 1988 Supplement;

Preamble

WHEREAS, The Joint Committee on Chesapeake Bay Critical
Areas was created in 1984 to meet with the Chesapeake Bay
Critical Area Commission and to review the development and
implementation of the criteria for program development in the
areas of the State subject to the Critical Area Law; and

WHEREAS, Chapter 234 of the Acts of 1988 expanded the
authority of the Joint Committee on the Chesapeake Bay Critical
Areas to include, among other things, a determination of whether
the criteria need to be strengthened in any area to make the
Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Protection Program more effective in
the protection of the water quality and habitat of the Chesapeake
Bay and its tributaries; and

WHEREAS, Instances of clearing or cutting of trees without
reforestation have occurred along the Chesapeake Bay Critical
Area; and

WHEREAS, Neither State nor local law currently allows a
local jurisdiction or, when acting on a referral from the
Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission under § 8-1815 of the
Natural Resources Article, the Attorney General to require a
person who clears or cuts trees in the Critical Area to replant
the trees; and

WHEREAS, This Act does not apply to any cutting or clearing
of trees that is allowed under regulations adopted by the
Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission, including regulations
entitled "Forest and Woodland Protection" and "Habitat Protection
Areas in the Critical Area"; now, therefore,

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That the Laws of Maryland read as follows:

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