The Lakeville Conservation Commission on Tuesday confirmed maps in a five‑year vegetation management plan submitted by Keolis, issuing a positive 2A determination for the maps and a negative determination for the work described in the plan while limiting the determination to the vegetation plan itself.

Keolis representative Matt, speaking by Zoom, told commissioners the filing is a renewal of the operator’s five‑year vegetation management program required under state rules and that the maps were created in accordance with CMR 11.004 and related Department of Agricultural Resources guidance. “We are seeking a positive 2 a determination for the maps,” Matt said, and he asked the commission also to issue a negative determination for the work included in the vegetation management plan.

Commissioners and the applicant discussed how the program is carried out. Matt said two primary chemical applications are used each year — one in May–June targeted to the roadbed and one in August–September targeted to areas of the right‑of‑way farther from the tracks — and that roadbed spraying is performed from a truck directly on the tracks and may reach up to 12 feet from the rail saddle. He described a system of color‑coded restrictions on the provided maps: “The areas marked with blue and yellow on the maps are restricted from that brush program further away from the track and will only receive that roadbed program directly down on the track,” he said. He also described on‑site controls: a certified applicator accompanies an environmental monitor and the applicator “has the ability to turn all the nozzles off” or shut side nozzles when approaching buffers.

Matt said the list of products used each year comes from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources’ approved list and that the company schedules multi‑day windows (often 8–10 days) to allow for weather delays. He added that Keolis sends a yearly operational plan by certified mail to the conservation commission, the board of health, the selectboard, MDAR and the Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program and also posts notice in local newspapers.

After asking for additional limiting language to be written on the positive 2A form so the determination would be explicitly “solely for the vegetation management plan,” the commission voted to issue the determinations with that condition. The commission’s vote authorizes confirmation of Keolis’s maps and grants the negative determination for the work described in the vegetation management plan; the commission recorded the action as limited to the vegetation management plan and not as blanket authority for other work.

Keolis said it will provide the commission with the required annual operational plan and with updates as the program proceeds.

Why this matters: the determination covers herbicide and mechanical vegetation controls along commuter‑rail right‑of‑way that run adjacent to wetlands, water supplies and private property. The commission’s condition narrows the approval to the submitted vegetation management plan and preserves the requirement for separate filings if Keolis seeks to undertake additional activity outside that scope.

Next steps: Keolis will file and send the annual operational plan and supply updates to the commission as work is scheduled.