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An Informational PamphletWhat is a wetland? The US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the US Environmental Protection Agency define wetlands as follows:
Wetlands are areas that are covered by water or have waterlogged soils for long periods during the growing season. Plants growing in wetlands are capable of living in saturated soil conditions for at least part of the growing season. Wetlands such as swamps and marshes are often obvious, but some wetlands are not easily recognized, often because they are dry during part of the year or "they just don't look very wet" from the roadside. Some of these wetland types include, but are not limited to, many bottomland forests, pocosins, pine savannahs, bogs, wet meadows, potholes, and wet tundra. The information presented here usually will enable you to determine whether you might have a wetland. If you intend to place dredged or fill material in a wetland or in an area that might be a wetland, contact the local Corps District Office for assistance in determining if a permit is required. Why is it necessary to consider whether an area is a wetland? Section 404 of the Clean Water Act requires that anyone interested in depositing dredged or fill material into "waters of the United States, including wetlands," must receive authorization for such activities. The Corps has been assigned responsibility for administering the Section 404 permitting process. Activities in wetlands for which permits may be required include, but are not limited to:
The final determination of whether an area is a wetland and whether the activity requires a permit must be made by the appropriate Corps District Office. How can wetlands be recognized? The Corps uses three characteristics of wetlands when making wetland determinations: vegetation, soil, and hydrology. Unless an area has been altered or is a rare natural situation, wetland indicators of all three characteristics must be present during some portion of the growing season for an area to be a wetland. Each characteristic is discussed below. However, there are some general situations in which an area has a strong probability of being a wetland. If any of the following situations occur, you should ask the local Corps office to determine whether the area is a wetland:
Many wetlands can be readily identified by the general situation stated above. For the boundary of these areas and numerous other wetlands, however, it is unclear whether these situations occur. In such cases, it is necessary to carefully examine the area for wetland indicators of the three major characteristics of wetlands: vegetation, soil, and hydrology. Wetland indicators of these characteristics, which may indicate that the area is a wetland, are described on the following pages. Vegetation indicators Nearly 5,000 plant types in the United States may occur in wetlands. These plants, known as hydrophytic vegetation, are listed in regional publications of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. However, you can usually determine if wetland vegetation is present by knowing a relatively few plant types that commonly occur in your area. For example, cattails, bulrushes, cordgrass, sphagnum moss, bald cypress, willows, mangroves, sedges, rushes, arrowheads, and water plantains usually occur in wetlands. Other indicators of plants growing in wetlands include trees having shallow root systems, swollen trunks (e.g., bald cypress, tupelo gum), or roots found growing from the plant stem or trunk above the soil surface. Several Corps offices have published pictorial guides of representative wetland plant types. If you cannot determine whether the plant types in your area are those that commonly occur in wetlands, ask the local Corps District Office or a local botanist for assistance. Soil indicators There are approximately 2,000 named soils in the United States that may occur in wetlands. Such soils, called hydric soils, have characteristics that indicate they were developed in conditions where soil oxygen is limited by the presence of saturated soil for long periods during the growing season. If the soil in your area is listed as hydric by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the area might be a wetland. If the name of the soil in your area is not known, an examination of the soil can determine the presence of any hydric soil indicators, including:
Hydrology indicators Wetland hydrology refers to the presence of water at or above the soil surface for a sufficient period of the year to significantly influence the plant types and soils that occur in the area. Although the most reliable evidence of wetland hydrology may be provided by gaging station or groundwater well data, such information is limited for most areas and, when available, requires analysis by trained individuals. Thus, most hydrologic indicators are those that can be observed during field inspection. Most do not reveal either the frequency, timing, or duration of flooding or the soil saturation. However, the following indicators provide some evidence of the periodic presence of flooding or soil saturation:
Wetland determination One or more indicators of wetland vegetation, hydric soil, and wetland hydrology must be present for an area to be a wetland. If you observe definite indicators of any of the three characteristics, you should seek assistance from either the local Corps District Office or someone who is an expert at making wetland determinations. This brochure is not intended to be used to make a final wetland determination or delineation; it is intend, however, to provide some general information concerning wetlands identification. What to do if your area has wetlands that you propose to alter? Contact the Corps District Office that has responsibility for the Section 404 permitting process in your area. This office will assist you in defining the boundary of any wetlands on your property, and will provide instructions for applying for a Section 404 permit, if necessary.
This page last updated: 09/18/03 |
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