2023 New York Laws › ENV - Environmental Conservation › Article 15 - Water Resources › Title 27 - Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System › 15-2703 - Definitions.

§ 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.