ConCom revamping its local wetland protection regulations
BY PETER B. BRACE
Is a duck blind subject to regulation by the Conservation Commission? Do horseshoe crabs and fungi warrant protection under the island's wetlands bylaw? What is the difference between a surf clam and a sea clam?

The Conservation Commission is trying to definitively answer these and other questions arising from the greyer areas of the Nantucket Wetlands Protection Bylaw.

At a special public hearing on Jan. 31, the commission, attorneys and representatives of island conservation organizations got together to update and clarify ConCom regulations, a regular process needed every so often to streamline the wetlands bylaw.

"We revised them two years ago," said Conservation Commissioner Dirk Roggeveen. "If we perceive that there's a need to clarify or change something in the regulations, we make note of it and then at some appropriate time we go through the procedure to modify them. It comes from the commissioners, based on their experiences, applying the regulations to applications that come before the commission."

Commissioner Sarah Oktay brought up the issue of structures built illegally in wetland resource areas - that is, within the 25-foot no-build and 50-foot buffer zones - in her proposal to remove the words "duck blinds" and "fishing platforms" from the bylaw definitions, because they are already covered by the word "platform" in the bylaw. But Oktay's suggestion spawned fellow Commissioner Diane Holdgate's complaint about a duck blind in Long Pond.

"It disturbs me that there is a duck blind on the North Head of Long Pond," Holdgate said. "It's a huge structure right in the edge of the reeds and it's got to be affecting the reeds and we don't know about it."

The issue is how can the commission regulate structures or platforms that it believes should be temporary (in trees or floating in wetland areas), and deal with those that linger longer than might be permissible. Roggeveen stressed that the commission could experience backlash from duck hunters whose blinds are legitimately temporary and are removed at the end of the hunting season.

ConCom Chairman Clark Whitcomb agreed.

"I guess what makes me nervous is if we go this far and somebody has gone out to Eel point and somebody has set up a temporary duck blind and we go running out and say, 'You have put up a structure in a wetland,' and then he's going to be gone when the sun goes down," he said.

The commission also discussed how to broaden the definitions of the wildlife it protects without getting too nitpicky. The proposed change comes from ConCom member Ernie Steinauer, who wants to change the definition of habitat to include all species by replacing the word "wildlife" with the words "all organisms."

"It seems to me that we should be looking broader than wildlife and really include all native organisms because I don't know why they shouldn't be considered important," said Steinauer.

But Roggeveen worried that this change would mean the bylaw would be protecting germs, bacteria and fungi, and that it could be taken out of context.

Some of the other proposed changes to Nantucket's wetlands protection bylaw include:

+ Considering a road as structure;

+ Updating definitions in the regulations for creatures including misspellings of scallops, defining surf clams as such and removing sea clam because the two are one and the same;

+ Clarifying vague terms;

+ Adding invasive plant species to the ConCom's list from that of the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative Invasive Species Committee;

+ Considering all parts of septic systems as structures;

+ Making a determination of estimated seasonal high groundwater for projects requiring excavation in land subject to coastal storms.

Last week's hearing will resume Feb. 12 at 4 p.m. when regulation changes will be winnowed and the proposed changes made public. The ConCom will then vote on amending the wetlands regulations with these changes.

Copies of the commissioners' proposed changes to date, as well those of the island's conservation organizations, are available at the Conservation Commission office on the first floor of the Town Annex

building at 37 Washington St. I