under the 1989 manual will not generally be reopened. In addition, a 

 landowner whose property has been identified as a wetland during a 

 seasonal dry period or drought can request a re-evaluation in the field 

 during the wet season of the year. 



The agencies are also requesting comment on the likelihood of sites being 

 delineated during the dry season as wetland that, if the delineation had 

 occurred during the wet season, would not have met the hydrology 

 criterion. Should requests for re-evaluations be limited to certain cases or 

 should all requests be granted? 



Issue 5: Hydrophytic Criterion 



• The agencies are particularly interested in soliciting comments on 

 including the Facultative Neutral test as part of the hydrophytic vegetation 

 criterion in addition to the proposed prevalence index approach. Under 

 this proposed approach the criterion would be met if after discounting all 

 dominant facultative (FAC) plants, the number of dominant obligate 

 wetland (OBL) and facultative wetland (FACW) species exceeds the 

 number of dominant facultative upland (FACU) and obligate upland 

 (UPL) species. (Note: a number of options are presented describing 

 circumstances under which the prevalence index procedure would be 

 used.) 



• The agencies are also interested in soliciting comments on variants of the 

 Facultative Neutral test. 



Issue 6: Use of Hydrologic Records 



• We are requesting comments on the data requirements for hydrologic 

 records (e.g., cutoff for "normal rainfall" years) to document that the 

 wetland hydrology criterion has been met. 



Issue 7: Alternative Approach for Easily Recognized Wetlands 



• We are requesting comments on alternative approaches that would allow 

 identification of categories that can be identified and delineated rapidly 

 and without the need for extensive documentation. We are soliciting 

 comments on the basic approach taken in the Federal Manual of 

 delineating every site individually. Is this the best approach? 



Issue 8: Defining the Growing Season 



• We are soliciting comments on the proposed definition of the growing 

 season and whether there are other more appropriate alternatives. 



