Excavation and land clearing in Gray, Maine.

Inside Gray's shoreland zone, total cleared openings for a house, driveway, lawn and septic area may not exceed a quarter of the lot area within the zone or 10,000 square feet, whichever is greater. Previously cleared land counts toward that total. In the buffer closest to the water, clearing is limited to selective cutting measured by a point system, and no more than 40 percent of the volume of trees four inches or larger may be removed in ten years. In Resource Protection areas next to a great pond, no vegetation may be cut in the first 75 feet except hazard trees.

In Limited Residential shoreland, filling or earthmoving over ten cubic yards requires a permit from the Code Enforcement Officer. In the Resource Protection and Stream Protection districts, Planning Board approval is needed.

Soils vary across short distances. Hinckley and Windsor sands dig easily but collapse. Paxton and Woodbridge till is stony, with a dense layer near twenty inches. Lyman soils hit bedrock at around eighteen inches. Brush can be burned only with a permit and after 5 p.m. on weekdays, so clearing debris is usually hauled or chipped instead.