Sec. 575.2. Definitions

As used in this Part, the following words and terms shall be defined as follows:

(a) Animal means all vertebrate and invertebrate species, in any stage of development, including but not limited to mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mollusks, arthropods, insects, and their eggs, larvae or young, but excluding humans.

(b) Certificate of inspection means a valid form certifying the eligibility of regulated invasive species for intrastate movement under the requirements of this Part.

(c) Commissioner means the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation as well as meaning the commissioners designated agent.

(d) Compliance agreement means an approved document, executed by persons or firms, covering the restricted movement, processing, handling, or utilization of regulated invasive species.

(e) Container means any object used to contain, store or transport products.

(f) Control means, as appropriate, eradicating, suppressing, reducing, or managing invasive species populations, preventing spread of invasive species from areas where they are present, and taking steps such as restoration of native species and habitats to reduce the effects of invasive species and prevent further invasions.

(g) Cultivar means a plant, or group of plants, of any species selected for desirable characteristics under cultivation, and may also be referred to as variety.

(h) Department means the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

(i) Disposal means the discharge, deposit, dumping or placing of any invasive species into or on any land or water in a manner that prevents the establishment, introduction or spread of the disposed species.

(j) Ecosystem means the complex of a community of organisms and its environment functioning as an interactive unit.

(k) Education means for the purpose of instruction or training.

(l) Environmental Notice Bulletin (ENB) means the publication of the department published pursuant to section 3-0306 of the Environmental Conservation Law, accessible on the departments internet website at http://www.dec.ny.gov.

(m) Free-living State means unconfined and outside the control of a person, and in the case of animals other than fish, includes the ability to fly, walk, or swim outside of human control.

(1) Invasive species found or placed in the following locations shall be considered to be a free-living state:

(i) lands identified as public lands;

(ii) lands that are continually or intermittently connected to public lands;

(iii) natural areas;

(iv) waters identified as public waters;

(v) waters that are continually or intermittently connected to public waters; or

(vi) water-using facilities, such as fish hatcheries, aquatic farms, zoos, and minnow retail or wholesale operations, with outflows that provide direct access for species to enter public waters.

(2) In the case of a fish or aquatic plant, the following locations are not considered a free-living state:

(i) artificial ponds such as water gardens that have no outlet to public waters;

(ii) waters whose shorelines are entirely within the land owned by a person, not continually or intermittently connected to public waters, and not identified by the department as public waters; or

(iii) water-using facilities, such as fish hatcheries, aquatic farms, zoos, aquaria, and minnow retail or wholesale operations, with outflows that do not provide direct access for species to enter public waters.

(n) Fungi means organisms such as yeast, molds, smuts, mildews, rusts, mushrooms and toadstools that reproduce by spores and lack chlorophyll, leaves, true stems, and roots.

(o) Import means to bring into New York State or to arrange for another person to bring into New York State.

(p) Incidental means an inadvertent act when performing an otherwise legal activity.

(q) Introduce means the intentional or unintentional escape, release, dissemination, or placement of a species into an ecosystem as a result of human activity.

(r) Invasiveness rank means a rank assigned to a nonnative species to signify its level of invasiveness based on the relative maximum score (0-100); points are accrued as a percent of the maximum possible points for four categories: ecological impacts, biological characteristics and dispersal ability, ecological amplitude and distribution, and difficulty of control. Based on points, species are ranked very high, high, medium, low or insignificant.

(s) Invasive species means a species that is nonnative to the ecosystem under consideration, and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. For the purposes of this Part, the harm must significantly outweigh any benefits.

(t) Limited permit means a valid form authorizing the restricted movement of regulated invasive species for specified processing, handling, or utilization.

(u) Native species means with respect to a particular ecosystem, a species that, other than as a result of an introduction, historically occurred or currently occurs in that ecosystem, or in New York State.

(v) Natural areas means those lands and waters that are preserved, restored, or managed for their natural features, including but not limited to parks, forests, refuges, nature preserves, grasslands, wetlands and shorelines.

(w) Nonnative species means a species not indigenous to an ecosystem under consideration or to New York State, and includes an individual specimen.

(x) Person means any individual, firm, co-partnership, association, or corporation, other than the state or a public corporation, as the latter is defined in article 2A section 66 of the General Construction Law.

(y) Plant means all plant species, in any stage of development, including, but not limited to trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, sedges, rushes, herbs, mosses, lichens, as well as submergent, emergent, free-floating or floating-leaf plants, and includes any part of the plant.

(z) Possess includes actual and constructive possession and means to own, maintain control over, restrain, hold, grow, raise or keep.

(aa) Prohibited invasive species means a species that poses a clear risk to New Yorks economy, ecological well-being and/or human health and is listed as prohibited under section 575.3 of this Part.

(ab) Propagate means to cause to continue to increase by sexual or asexual reproduction.

(ac) Propagule means parts of a plant that are capable of producing additional plants through either sexual or asexual reproduction, including but not limited to seeds, roots, stems, rhizomes, tubers and spores.

(ad) Public lands means land in the public domain owned by a Federal, State, county, city, town or local government entity.

(ae) Public waters means lakes, bays, sounds, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, canals, the Atlantic Ocean within the territorial limits of the State of New York and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, public or private (except those private waters which do not combine or effect a junction with natural surface or underground waters), which are wholly or partially within or bordering the state or within its jurisdiction.

(af) Purchase means to obtain by paying money or other valuable consideration.

(ag) Reasonable precautions means intentional actions that prevent or minimize the possession, transport, or introduction of invasive species.

(ah) Regulated invasive species means a species that has the potential to cause significant harm to New York’s economy, ecological well being and/or human health and could be effectively contained through regulatory programs and is listed as regulated under section 575.4 of this Part.

(ai) Research means to conduct systematic search for facts or scientific investigation for which its intended purpose is the discovery of new facts and their correct interpretation, the revision of accepted conclusions, or the practical application of such new or revised conclusions.

(aj) Sell means to offer for sale, make or attempt to make sales, or to give up to another for money or other valuable consideration.

(ak) Species means a group of organisms all of which have a high degree of physical and genetic similarity, generally interbreed only among themselves, and show persistent differences from members of allied groups of organisms.

(al) Transport means to cause, or attempt to cause, an invasive species to be imported or carried or moved within the state, and includes accepting or receiving a specimen for the purpose of transportation or shipment.