§186-5.5 Right to harvest. (a) The owner of land shall have the right to harvest new trees generated according to a management plan approved by the department on lands within the agricultural district as provided by section 186-2(a)(1), or on degraded forest and pasture lands within the conservation district and zoned for commercial forest use as provided by section 186-2(a)(2); provided that this right shall be subject to the power of the State to protect health, safety, and welfare.
(b) The State's liability as a result of the right to harvest new trees shall be limited to actions taken only by the State and shall not extend to any private property rights.
(c) As used in this section, "degraded forests" means areas which have had considerable disturbance, are altered from their natural state, and contain less than twenty per cent crown canopy of native tree species. [L 1994, c 207, §1]