The Natural Resources Division provides legal services to the following:
- Department of Environmental Protection, including the Board of Environmental Protection, the Board of Underground Storage Tank Installers, and the Clean-up and Response Fund Review Board;
- Department of Marine Resources, including the Marine Patrol;
- Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, including the Warden Service;
- Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, including the Bureau of Parks and Lands, the Bureau of Agriculture, the Maine Forest Service, the Animal Welfare Program, the Land Use Planning Commission, the Maine Milk Commission, the Pull Events Commission, the Board of Pesticide Control, the Land for Maine’s Future Board, and the State’s Soil and Water Conservation Commissions;
- Department of Energy Resources;
- Baxter State Park Authority;
- Saco River Corridor Commission.
The Natural Resources Division also advises the State’s natural resource trustees and the Attorney General with respect to public trust and conservation easement responsibilities and provides staff to the Abandoned and Discontinued Roads Commission.
Members of the Natural Resources Division regularly work with colleagues in Maine and federal agencies and other states’ attorneys general offices on the implementation and enforcement of state and federal environmental and natural resource laws and regulations and the protection of public health and the environment.
Scott Boak, Division Chief
Scott Boak graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia in 1993 and received his law degree from the William and Mary Law School in 1997. While in law school, Scott worked with the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences researching public and municipal coastal property rights in the Viriginia Beach area. After law school, Scott was in private practice focusing on civil litigation, first in Atlanta, and then at a Portland law firm after moving to Maine in early 2001.
Scott joined the Office of the Attorney General in January 2006, initially representing Maine Revenue Services as a member of the Tax Unit in the Office's Litigation Division. Scott joined the Natural Resources Division in 2014, where he started out working on water and dam-related issues under the Clean Water Act and other state and federal laws. Scott became Chief of the Natural Resources Division in September 2019.