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Md. Code, Natural Resources § 8-204

This is the official text of Md. Code, Natural Resources § 8-204, part of Maryland’s Code, Natural Resources — governs parks, wildlife, and natural resource management.

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§8–204.

Official statutory text

(a) The Department is the unit of State government that coordinates public access to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

(b) The Department shall:

(1) Identify and designate areas for public access to the waters of the State in each county that is located on the tidal waters of the State;

(2) Coordinate with local and State agencies responsible for planning, purchasing, developing, and maintaining access areas;

(3) Make recommendations to guide public agencies in the identification, development, and management of access areas; and

(4) Serve as a repository for all information and inventories concerning shorefront access.

(c) (1) This section may not be construed to expand the authority that the Department has on July 1, 1988, to require or promote condemnation of real property along the Big Blackwater River and the Little Blackwater River.

(2) The State may not acquire by eminent domain real property along the Big Blackwater River or the Little Blackwater River without first proving that the acquisition is necessary to preserve the natural qualities and unpolluted state of the Big Blackwater River and the Little Blackwater River.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.