Seeks to protect and extend public strolling rights, as well as public navigation rights. Preserves pedestrian access along the water's edge for fishing, fowling and navigation and, in return for permission to develop non-water dependent projects on Commonwealth tidelands, provides facilities to enhance public use and enjoyment of the water.While other agencies, including the Department of Environmental Management, Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management and the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, play a role in preserving public rights in public trust lands, the Waterways Regulation Program, the section of MassDEP that oversees Chapter 91, is the primary division charged with implementing the "public trust doctrine." Specifically, the MassDEP Waterways Regulation Program: Through Chapter 91, the Commonwealth seeks to preserve and protect the rights of the public, and to guarantee that private uses of tidelands and waterways serve a proper public purpose. The oldest program of its kind in the nation, Chapter 91 regulates activities on both coastal and inland waterways, including construction, dredging and filling in tidelands, great ponds and certain rivers and streams. The Colonial Ordinances codified the "public trust doctrine," a legal principle that dates back nearly 2000 years, which holds that the air, the sea and the shore belong not to any one person, but rather to the public at large. The Commonwealth formally established the program in 1866, but the philosophy behind Chapter 91 dates back to the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, most notably in the Colonial Ordinances of 1641-1647. The Commonwealth's primary tool for protection and promotion of public use of its tidelands and other waterways is Massachusetts General Law Chapter 91, the waterways licensing program.
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