Trail Maintenance Policy
This is to inform you that the Swampscott Conservation Commission has approved a Volunteer Trail Maintenance Policy.
The Commission is interested in working closely with volunteer organizations to carry out stewardship activities on town-owned conservation land and open space. In recent years, the Commission has worked with the Girl and Boy Scouts and the Swampscott Conservancy in conducting trail maintenance activities. In order to assist these organizations, as well as other individuals and groups that may be interested in acting as stewards, the Commission has drafted and approved the attached Volunteer Trail Maintenance Policy.
Under the policy, volunteer stewards can help care for conservation lands by performing low-key maintenance, such as: trash pickup; clearing downed trees and limbs that block established trails or pose a safety hazard; pruning/trimming vegetation that overhands trails or around signs and kiosks; and removing invasive species. The Policy provides guidance on how these tasks should be undertaken. Individual and groups wishing to participate in the Trail Maintenance Program will need to sign a release form (which is attached to the policy).
General Information About the Conservation Commission
What is the Conservation Commission? While many are already familiar with the Commission and what it does, and may have in fact come before this volunteer Town board, we realize some people may be totally unfamiliar with the Commission and its charge. To those, we offer the following introduction.
Who makes up the Commission? Appointed by the Select Board for three-year terms, the Swampscott Conservation Commission is made up of seven members and includes Town residents with science and legal backgrounds -- although there is no requirement to serve on a conservation commission, only an overriding interest in doing the conservation work needed by the Town. There is also currently a non-voting Associate Commissioner.
What are its duties and responsibilities? Simply stated, the Commission has two broad jobs: It serves the community in a regulatory capacity (to protect wetlands and other resources) and in a conservation capacity (for promoting and maintaining open space).
The Commission devotes much of its time on the first job: reviewing permit applications (called Notices of Intent) and issuing permits (called Orders of Conditions) for proposed projects that may affect the Town's wetlands, coastal banks, beaches, or flood plains. In fulfilling this obligation, the Commission must ensure that the requirements of the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act (M.G.L. Chap. 131, Sec. 40), as set for in regulations passed by the State's Department of Environmental Protection (310 C.M.R. 10), are fully met.
The second power given to the Commission, stemming from Massachusetts’s Conservation Commission Act (M.G.L. Chap. 40, Sec. 8C) focuses on the promotion, development, and maintenance of natural resources. Under this power conservation commissions undertake planning, acquiring, and managing open space, and encouraging and monitoring conservation preservation restrictions.
The Swampscott Conservation Commission occasionally issue bulletins to keep residents and business up to date on issues relating to the Commission’s work in protecting the land, water, and biological resource of our town.