Implementation Guidance 31 



While the National Park Service is requiring that SCORP wetlands 

 components will be consistent with the NWPCP, it is recognized that they 

 need not and will not be identical. However, they must be consistent with 

 the NWPCP regarding the generic wetland loss, threat, and functions and 

 values criteria specified in the Act To the extent possible, the Service will 

 use State Wetlands Priority Plans in formulating Service Regional 

 Wetlands Concept Plans. 



The NWPCP allows States flexibility to conduct wetland acquisition 

 priority planning and to develop their own wetlands assessment criteria 

 as long as they are compatible with the firamework established by the three 

 generic criteria in the Act on wetland scarcity, vulnerability and function 

 and values. The NWPCP is intended to effect priority planning efforts 

 for protecting wetland resources at the State level based on evaluating all 

 important wetland values, without greater priority consideration given to 

 any one value over another. However, the Senate Committee Report (1986) 

 indicated that wetlands acquired under the LWCF State grant program 

 will be subject to direct recreation use, or if not subject to direct public 

 access, will produce valuable recreation opportunities elsewhere (e.g., 

 migratory bird sanctuary). 



A State may develop its own evaluation criteria or modify the NWPCP 

 Threshold Criteria to meet State needs (i.e., refine the threshold criteria to 

 be more specific and geared to the State level rather than the national 

 level). For example, State Wetlands Priority Plans can give resolution 

 not possible in the NWPCP, such as identifying specific areas (e.g.. 

 Rainwater Basin) within a State or portion of an ecoregion warranting top 

 priority consideration for acquisition. However, the process should still 

 result in collection or generation of sufficient information that can be 

 used by Federal or State decisionmakers to determine if the wetland site is 

 eligible for acquisition consideration based on the Threshold Criteria in 

 the NWPCP. 



The qualifying thresholds determined by an individual State should not 

 be lower than those established by the NWPCP Threshold Criteria. In 

 other words, a State should have gathered and substantiated sufficient 

 background information on a proposed wetland acquisition project to 

 allow a Federal or State decisionmaker to determine that the wetland site: 

 1) includes predominantly (greater then 50 percent) rare or declining 

 wetland types (or substantiated exceptions); 2) is threatened with loss or 

 degradation; and 3) has had all the functional values considered with 

 equal priority and is recognized, identified or listed as important for at 

 least two functional values. If a State finds that these threshold criteria 

 would exclude wetland types and sites that warrant priority in the State, 

 then documentable information should be provided to substantiate the 

 departure from the minimal standards set by the NWPCP Threshold 

 Criteria. 



The NWPCP provides States with latitude to use other classification 

 criteria and systems, such as a Natural Areas Inventory. For example, 



National Wetlands Priority Conservation Plan 



