SUB-CRITERIA ESTUARINE WETLANDS 



1: ar.v oi li.j ;'o^n.■•.^ ."^ :"i-3' jt^: >jn>:;>.-u, an cituariP.c \sc;'..ind is a Category i uciljrj, 



1) Listed as a National Wildlife Refuge, National Park, National Estuary Rcscr\c, Natural 

 Ar-. ■ Tt', -, r-. o or .>: . r -^^..r. c or rt.>^r-. o dosipnat..d under '.'.'AC 332-30-151, or 



2) Greater than five acres; or 



3) Less than five acres and satisfies any four of the following: 



- greater than 1 acre; 



- contains at least two estuarine wetland habitat classes (Dethier, 1990; 



- niinimum existing evidence of human related physical alteration ( e.g., diking, ditching, 

 filling, cultivating, grazing or introduced species); 



- contains functional tidal channcKs) or is connected to a tidal stream; 



- within 1/4 mile of other water bodies (e.g., lakes or wetlands greater than one acre in size or 

 streams or sloughs greater than 5 cubic feet/second mean annual flow); 



- within a watershed that has little to moderate point or non- point water quality problems 

 cited by the Department of Ecology 



- adjacent land uses on more than 75 percent of the wetland border consist of either agriculture, 

 relatively undisturbed forest, or opx?n space or, if there are current or planned Industrial, 

 Commercial, or Residential adjacent uses there is/will be a high quality buffer at least 100' 

 wide. 



SOURCE 



See field methodology 



JUSTIFICATION 



Estuaries are among the most highly productive and complex ecosystems where tremendous 

 quantities of sediments, nutrients and organic matter arc exchanged between terrestrial, 

 freshwater and marine communities. This availability of resources benefits an enormous 

 variety of plants and animals. Fish, shellfish and birds are the most visible along with 

 emergent plants, however, there is also a huge variety of other life-forms, for example; 

 diatoms, algae and invertebrates. 



Estuarine systems have substantial economic value as well as environnr>ental value. All 

 Washington state estuaries have been modified to sonr>e degree, bearing the brunt of 

 development pressures through filling, drainage, port development, disposal of urban and 

 industrial wastes. The over-harvest of certain selected economic species has also modified the 

 natural functioning of estuarine systems. Many Puget Sound estuaries such as the Duwamish, 

 Puyallup, Snohomish and Skagit have been extensively modified with losses of up to 99% of 

 estuarine wetland area. Willapa Bay as a whole is probably the most pristine large estaurine 

 wetland remaining in Washington State (Source: mostly Albright et.al. 1980). Even so,Willapa 

 Bay has been modified by development. 



DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY - DRAFT 23 



