Remove water stained leaves, trunks, and stems as wetland hydrology 

 indicators; public comments are requested in the Preamble regarding their 

 reliability as indicators of hydrology during the growing season and 

 whether they should be primary or secondary indicators. 



Incorporate localized differences in the growing season; the proposal 

 solicits comments on the definition of the growing season. 



4) Hydric Soils Criterion: 



Specifically state that hydric soils must be field-verified; hydric soils maps 

 alone are not sufficient evidence of hydric soils. 



Clarify that the three wetland criteria are mandatory except in specified 

 circumstances, and therefore the presence of mapped hydric soils alone 

 cannot be used to delineate an area as a wetland. 



Incorporate localized differences for certain hydric soil phases. 



5) Wetland Vegetation Criterion: 



Propose the prevalence index approach -- that is, the vegetation is 

 considered wetlands vegetation and therefore meets this criterion if, under 

 normal circumstances, a frequency analysis of all species within the plant 

 community yields a prevalence index value of less than 3.0 (where OBL = 

 1.0, FACW = 2.0, FAC = 3.0, FACU = 4.0, and UPL = 5.0). 



PREAMBLE REQUESTS PUBLIC COMMENTS - In addition, the Preamble requests 

 comments regarding the following issues. Some of these issues have been discussed in 

 the preceding section. 



Issue 1: Seasonally Harder to Identify Wetland Types 



We are requesting public comment on three alternatives to identifying and 

 delineating seasonally harder to identify wetland types that are NOT 

 exceptions to the criteria, but may not demonstrate indicators of one or 

 more of the 3 criteria during certain (e.g., dry) times of the year. The 

 proposed Federal Manual explicitly requires that for an area to be 

 delineated as a vegetated wetland it must have three components: 

 wetlands hydrology, hydric soil, and hydrophytic vegetation. It is essential 

 that the revised Federal Manual allow accurate wetlands determinations to 

 f I be made at any time of the year (i.e., areas should not be incorrectly 



