Georgia Commons

Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Title 12. CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES · Chapter 4. MINERAL RESOURCES AND CAVES · Article 4. CAVE PROTECTION

12-4-142. Definitions.

Active

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

  1. As used in this article, the term:

  2. (1)

    ‘‘Cave’’ means any naturally occurring subterranean cavity, including, but not restricted to, a cavern, pit, pothole, natural well, sinkhole, and grotto.#

  3. (2)

    ‘‘Commercial cave’’ means any cave with improved trails and lighting utilized by the owner for the purpose of exhibition to the general public as a profit or nonprofit enterprise, wherein a fee is collected for entry.#

  4. (3)

    ‘‘Gate’’ means any structure or device located so as to limit or prohibit access or entry to a cave.#

  5. (4)

    ‘‘Owner’’ means a person who owns title to land where a cave is located, including a person who owns title to a leasehold estate in such land, and specifically includes the state and any of its agencies, departments, boards, bureaus, commissions, or authorities, as well as counties, municipalities, and other political subdivisions of the state.#

  6. (5)

    ‘‘Sinkhole’’ means a closed topographic depression or basin, generally draining underground, including, but not restricted to, a doline, limesink, or sink.#

  7. (6)

    ‘‘Speleothem’’ means a natural mineral formation or deposit occurring in a cave, including, but not restricted to, stalagmites, stalactites, helectites, anthodites, gypsum flowers, gypsum needles, angel’s hair, soda straws, draperies, bacon, cave pearls, popcorn (coral), rimstone dams, columns, palettes, and flowstone. Speleothems are commonly composed of calcite, epsomite, gypsum, aragonite, celestite, and other similar minerals.#

  8. (7)

    ‘‘Wildlife’’ means any vertebrate or invertebrate animal life indigenous to this state or any species introduced or specified by the Board of Natural Resources and includes, but is not restricted to, quadrupeds, mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, crustaceans, and mollusks, or any part thereof.#

Reading note: a word broken across two lines in the printed volume was joined by rule and could not be checked against the volume's own vocabulary. The official page linked below settles any doubt.

The notes below are printed with the section but are not enacted law (O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1(c)). They are shown apart from the text.

History

Ga. L. 1977, p. 833, § 3.

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Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

Text read from t12-(v10)-2021-pdf.pdf, Volume V10, 2021 edition, page 346; merge action: carried; file SHA-256 a1ca11f804f2.

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