What is a wetland?

The Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act defines wetlands as: “any bank, riverfront area, fresh water wetland (wet meadows, marshes, swamps, bogs, areas where groundwater, flowing or standing surface water or ice provide a significant part of the supporting substrate for a plant community for at least five months of the year; emergent and submergent plant communities in inland waters; that portion of any bank which touches any inland waters), coastal wetland (bank, marsh, swamp, meadow, flat or other lowland subject to tidal action or coastal storm flowage), beach, dune, flat, marsh, meadow or swamp bordering on the ocean or on any estuary, creek, river, stream, pond, or lake, or any land under said waters or any land subject to tidal action, coastal storm flowage, or flooding.”