Facts on Massachusetts Land Use

Marina

The Massachusetts government website gives a list of 40 land use categories within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, of which numbers 21 and 22 are currently unused. Curiously, only one category in the list covers residential land use, and that refers only to very low density residential locations, or those areas where single-family dwellings encompass more than an acre of land use. Most of the other land use categories can be grouped into clusters by aspects of similar land use.

Agricultural

Pasture land

Agricultural land falls into several subtypes, listed as separate categories at the Massachusetts website. Types include cropland tilled for the purpose of growing crops in rows, pasture lands for grazing animals and for growing hay, orchards containing fruit tree stands and cranberry bogs that include both active cranberry bogs and those that have recently become inactive.

Forest

Evergreen forest

The Massachusetts website divides forested land into three separate categories: deciduous forestation, evergreen forestation or mixed. Deciduous forests are those where the majority of trees lose their leaves each autumn; whereas evergreen forests contain a predominant number of trees that remain green year-round, including both conifers and broadleaved evergreens such as holly and boxwood. Mixed forest land use describes forest tracts in which both evergreen and deciduous trees grow together, with neither type exhibiting a clear predominance.

Wetlands

The Massachusetts website lists three separate categories of land use that qualify as wetlands. Non-forested freshwater wetlands include areas that flood seasonally such as shallow marshes, deep marshes, bogs, wet meadows, small beaver ponds and shrub swamps. Saltwater wetland areas include tidal salt marshes that usually flood twice daily, ditched salt meadows and salt meadows that flood only irregularly. Forested wetlands include swamps covered with either evergreen, deciduous or mixed forest cover. Related to wetlands land use is open water land use, which includes locations such as ponds, lakes, lagoons and rivers as indicated on a map by a polygon versus a line. Also related to wetlands land use is coastal shore land use, which encompasses dunes, shoreline cliffs and banks, saltwater sandy beaches and rocky intertidal areas.

Recreation

Racetrack

The recreation land use designation includes three subtypes. Spectator recreation land use refers to facilities where spectators enjoy passive recreation activities and includes locations such as racetracks, fairgrounds, amusement parks, zoos and drive-in theaters, plus the parking lots associated with any such facilities. Water recreation areas describes facilities such as developed sandy beaches (both freshwater and saltwater), water parks and swimming pools--again with associated parking lots for such facilities. Participation recreational facilities land use includes facilities used by the public for active recreation such as ski areas, playgrounds, ball fields and tennis courts. Related to participation recreational land use, but broken out as a separate categories, are the land use categories of golf courses and marinas.

Industrial and Commercial

Manufacturing plant

Industrial land use designates facilities for manufacture, assembly and storage of products, including chemicals, petroleum, metals and machinery. Such areas may have multiple loading docks and often have truck trailers parked at the site. Commercial land use facilities include facilities such as shopping centers and malls, along with the parking areas associated with these commercial developments.

Miscellaneous

Greenhouses

Miscellaneous land use categories listed at the Massachusetts website include waste disposal sites, cemeteries, nursery facilities such as greenhouses and Christmas tree farms, junkyards, mining, transportation facilities and power lines and pipelines.

References

• Mass.Gov: Massachusetts Land Use 2006--Land Cover Category Definitions

Resources

• University of Missouri Extension: Selecting Landscape Plants: Broad-leaved Evergreens