I 



1.11. This definition specifies hydrology, hydro- 

 phytic vegetation, and hydric soils. Any area that 

 meets the hydric soil criteria (defined by the Na- 

 tional Technical Committee for Hydric Soils) is 

 considered to have a predominance of hydric soils. 

 The definition also makes a geographic exclusion 

 for Alaska, so that wetlands in Alaska with a high 

 potential for agricultural development and a pre- 

 dominance of permafrost soils are exempt from the 

 requirements of the Act. 



Fish and Wildlife Service's Wetland Clas- 

 sification System 



1.12. The FWS in cooperation with other Federal 

 agencies. State agencies, and private organizations 

 and individuals developed a wetland definition for 

 conducting an inventory of the Nation's wetlands. 

 This definition was published in the FWS's publi- 

 cation "Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater 

 Habitats of the United States" (Cowardin, et al. 

 1979): 



Wetlands are lands transitional between ter- 

 restrial and aquatic systems where the water 

 table is usually at or near the surface or the 

 land is covered by shallow water. For pur- 

 poses of this classification wetlands must 

 have one or more of the following three at- 

 tributes: (1) at least periodically, the land 

 supports predominantly hydrophytes, (2) 

 the substrate is predominantly undrained 



hydric soil, and (3) the substrate is nonsoil 

 and is saturated with water or covered by 

 shallow water at some time during the 

 growing season of each year. 



1.13. This definition includes both vegetated and 

 nonvegetated wetlands, recognizing that some 

 types of wetlands lack vegetation (e.g., mud flats, 

 sand flats, rocky shores, gravel beaches, and sand 

 bars). The classification system also defines "deep- 

 water habitats" as "permanently flooded lands lying 

 below the deepwater boundary of wetlands." Deep- 

 water habitats include esruarine and marine aquatic 

 beds (similar to "vegetated shallows" of Section 

 404). Open waters below extreme low water at 

 spring tides in salt and brackish tidal areas and usu- 

 ally below 6.6 feet in inland areas and freshwater 

 tidal areas are also included in deepwater habitats. 



Summary of Federal Definitions 



1.14. The CE, EPA, and SCS wetland definitions 

 include only areas that are vegetated under normal 

 circumstances, while the FWS definition encom- 

 passes both vegetated and nonvegetated areas. Ex- 

 cept for the FWS inclusion of nonvegetated areas 

 as wetlands and the exemption for Alaska in the 

 SCS definition, all four wetiand definitions are 

 conceptually the same; they all include three basic 

 elements - hydrology, vegetation, and soils - for 

 identifying wetlands. 



