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"Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency <br />and duration sufficient to support, and under normal circumstances do support, a <br />prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. " <br />In order for an area to be classified as a jurisdictional wetland, the manual requires at least one <br />indicator from each of three parameters: 1) hydrophytic vegetation; 2) hydric soils; and 3) <br />wetland hydrology. <br />VEGETATION <br />Sample points were taken at several points within the project area. At each sample point, percent <br />total cover of dominant plant species was estimated. The COE manual indicates that the <br />vegetation requirement is met if the prevalent vegetation consists of macrophytes adapted to <br />saturated soils. The US Fish and Wildlife Service's National List of Plant Species that Occur in <br />Wetlands (Region 5) was used to classify plant species according to their likelihood of occurring <br />in wetlands: <br />OBL Obligate Wetland Plants Species that occur almost always (599% probability) in <br /> wetlands, and rarely occur in nonwetlands. <br />FACW Facultative Wetland Plants Species that occur usually (67-99%) in wetlands, but also <br /> occur in non-wetlands <br />FAC Facultative Plants Species with a similar likelihood (33-6601o) of occurring in <br /> wetlands or nonwetlands. <br />FACU Facultative Upland Plants Species that occur sometimes (1-33%) in wetlands but occur <br /> more often in nonwedands. <br />UPL Obligate Upland Plants Species that occur rarely (<1 %) in wetlands but occur almost <br /> always in nonwetlands. <br />NI No Indicator Species for which insufficient information is available to <br /> determine its indicator status. <br />Under normal circumstances, an area is considered to have hydrophytic vegetation when more <br />than 501/o of the dominant species, from all plant strata, are classified as either OBL, FACW, or <br />FAC. Dominant species are those species in each stratum that, when ranked in descending order <br />of estimated percent aerial coverage and cumulatively totaled, immediately exceed 50 percent of <br />the total coverage. Additionally, any species comprising at least 20% of the total coverage for <br />their respective stratum was also considered dominant. <br />SOILS <br />Each sample site was examined for the presence of hydric soils. Soils which are saturated or <br />flooded long enough (usually a week or more) during the growing season to develop anaerobic <br />conditions in the upper layers are classified as hydric. Typical field indicators of hydric soil <br />conditions include; organic soils, thick organic layers, gleying (gray soil colors), and low soil <br />chroma (intensity of soil hue) with or without redoxomorphic features (mottles). Low soil <br />chroma and mottles are indicators of anaerobic conditions. Mottles usually indicate a fluctuating <br />2