For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply:

"Applicant" means the person, party, firm, corporation or other entity that proposes any activity that could affect a wetland, a stream or fish and wildlife habitat or other critical area.

"Artificially created wetland," means wetlands created through purposeful human action from nonwetland sites, such as irrigation and drainage, grass-lined swales, canals, detention facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, farm ponds, and landscape amenities.

"Best available science" in the context of critical areas protection, means a valid scientific process that produces reliable information useful in understanding the consequences of a local government's regulatory decisions and in developing critical areas policies and in regulating development.

"Clearing" means the removal of timber, brush, grass, ground cover or other vegetative matter from a site, which exposes the earth's surface of the site.

"Creation" means the producing or forming of a wetland or stream through artificial means from an upland (dry) site.

"Critical habitat" or "critical fish and wildlife habitat" means habitat areas associated with threatened, endangered or environmentally sensitive species of plants or fish and wildlife and which, if altered, could reduce the likelihood that the species will maintain and reproduce over the long term. Such areas are documented with reference to lists, categories and definitions of species promulgated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (Non-Game Date System Special Animal Species) as identified in WAC 232-12-011 or 232-12-014 and in the Priority Habitat Species lists compiled in compliance with WAC 365-190-080; or by rules and regulations adopted currently or hereafter by the U.S. Fish and Fish and Wildlife Service. Critical habitat also includes the following types of areas:

1. Regionally rare native fish and fish and wildlife habitat (i.e., one of five or fewer examples of the habitat type within the county);

2. Type I wetlands as defined in these regulations;

3. Documented commercial and/or recreational shellfish beds managed by the Washington Department of Fisheries;

4. Class I streams as defined in these regulations;

5. State nature area preserves or natural resource conservation areas identified by state law and managed by the Department of Natural Resources; and

6. Naturally occurring ponds stocked with game fish by government or tribal entities; and naturally occurring ponds of greater than one acre and less than twenty acres in area with cover of submerged aquatic vegetation, shrubs or trees not exceeding fifty percent of the area of surface water, and whose maximum depth does not exceed 6.6 feet. Critical habitat does not include artificially created habitat and/or habitat created by purposeful human action, including but not limited to landscape amenities, detention facilities, grasslined swales, and open space areas.

"Department" means the town department of planning.

"Earth" or "earth material" means naturally occurring rock, soil, stone, sediment or combination thereof.

"Enhancement" means:

1. For wetlands, the improvement of an existing viable wetland or buffer, such as by increasing plan diversity, increasing fish and wildlife habitat, installing environmentally-compatible erosion controls or removing nonindigenous plant or animal species; or

2. For streams and fish and wildlife habitat, the improvement of an existing habitat or an existing stream or associated buffer such as by increasing plant density structural diversity, installing environmentally-compatible erosion controls or removing nonindigenous plant or animal species.

"Erosion" means the wearing away of the earth's surface as a result of the movement of wind, water or ice.

"Excavation" means the mechanical removal of earth material.

"Existing and ongoing agricultural activities" means and includes those activities conducted on lands defined in RCW 84.34.020(2) that also are designated natural resource lands under RCW 36.70A.170 (if there are no qualifying lands in the town, this definition and the associated exception should be eliminated), and those activities involved in the production of crops and livestock, including but not limited to operation and maintenance of farm and stock ponds or drainage ditches, irrigation systems, changes between agricultural activities, and normal operation, maintenance or repair of existing serviceable structures, facilities or improved areas. Activities, which bring an area into agricultural use, are not part of an ongoing activity. An operation ceases to be ongoing when the area on which it was conducted is proposed for conversion to a nonagricultural use or has lain idle for a period of longer than five years, unless the idle land is registered in a federal or state soils conservation program. Forest practices are not included in this definition.

"Exotic" means any species of plant or animal that is foreign (i.e., not native to the Puget Sound area).

"Federal manual" or "federal methodology" means the field methodology for identifying wetlands in the field as described in the "Federal Manual for Identifying and Delineating Jurisdictional Wetlands" (January 1989).

"Fill" or "fill material" means a deposit of earth material placed by human or mechanical (machine) means.

"Filling" means the act of transporting or placing (by any manner or mechanism) fill materials from, to, or on any soil surface, sediment surface or other fill materials.

"Fish and wildlife report" means a report, prepared by a qualified consultant, who evaluated plant communities and fish and wildlife functions and values on a site, consistent with the format and requirements establishment by this chapter.

"Grading" means any excavating, filling, clearing, leveling or contouring of the ground surface by human or mechanical means.

"Habitat" or "fish and wildlife habitat" means areas that provide food, protective cover, nesting, breeding or movement for fish and wildlife.

"Habitat buffer" means an area surrounding a defined fish and wildlife habitat or wetland, which reduces adverse impacts to habital/wetland functions from adjacent development or other activities or uses; the area between a fish and wildlife habitat or wetland and the upland which serves as a transition zone.

"Habitat management" means management of land to maintain species in suitable habitats within their natural geographic distribution so that isolated subpopulations are not created.

"Habitat map" means maps of plant cover types/ communities used to indicate the potential presence of fish and wildlife species.

"In-kind mitigation" means replacement of wetlands with substitute wetlands whose characteristics closely approximate those destroyed or degraded by a regulated activity.

"Intentionally created streams," means streams created through purposeful human action, such as irrigation and drainage ditches, grass-lined swales, and canals.

"Isolated wetland" means wetlands that are not hydrologically connected to other surface water features, either by aboveground flows or shallow subsurface water features.

"Mitigation" means and includes:

1. Avoiding the impact altogether by not taking a certain action or parts of actions;

2. Minimizing impacts by limiting the degree or magnitude of the action and its implementation;

3. Rectifying the impact by repairing, rehabilitating or restoring the affected environment;

4. Reducing or eliminating the impact over time by preservation and maintenance operations pursuant to activities undertaken during the life of the action;

5. Compensating for the impact by replacing or providing substitute resources or environments.

6. While monitoring without additional actions is not considered mitigation for the purposes of these regulations, it may be a part of a comprehensive mitigation program.

"Native vegetation" means vegetation existing on a site or plant species that are indigenous to the area in question.

"Ordinary high water mark" means that mark that will be found by examining the bed and banks of a stream and ascertaining where the presence and action of waters are so common and usual, and so long maintained in ordinary years, as to mark upon the soil a vegetative character distinct from that of the abutting upland. In any area where the ordinary high water mark cannot be found, the line of mean high water shall substitute. In any area where neither can be found, the top of the channel bank shall be substituted.

"Out-of-kind mitigation" means replacement of wetlands whose characteristics do not closely approximate those destroyed or degraded by a regulated activity.

"Permanent erosion control" means continuous on-site and off-site control measures that are needed to control conveyance or deposition of earth, turbidity or pollutants after development, construction or restoration.

"Pond" means a naturally existing body of standing water, which exists on a year-round basis and occurs in depression of land or expanded portion of a stream.

"Priority species" or "priority fish and wildlife species" means fish and wildlife species of concern due to their population status and sensitivity to habitat alteration, as identified by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"Qualified consultant" means a professionally trained and/or certified fish and wildlife or stream biologist or ecologist or other professional with expertise in the scientific disciplines necessary to identify, evaluate and manage habitat and streams.

"Qualified wetland specialist" means a professionally trained and/or certified wetlands biologist or wetlands ecologist.

"Regulated activity" means activities occurring in or near and/or potentially affecting wetlands or wetland buffers, or critical fish and wildlife habitat or buffer, or a stream or stream buffer, or a geologically hazardous area that are subject to the provisions of this chapter. Regulated activities generally include but are not limited to any filling, dredging, dumping or stockpiling, draining, excavation, flooding, construction or reconstruction, driving pilings, obstructing, shading, clearing or harvesting.

"Rehabilitation"' means the establishment of a viable stream from a previously filled or degraded stream reach.

"Restoration" means the reestablishment of a viable wetland from a previously filled or degraded wetland site.

"Site" means any parcel or combination of contiguous parcels where a project is being proposed.

"Slope" means an inclined earth surface, the inclination of which is expressed as the ratio of horizontal distance to vertical distance.

"Stream beds" are areas where surface water produces a defined channel or bed. A defined channel or bed is an area which demonstrates clear evidence of the passage of water and includes, but is not limited to, bedrock, channels, gravel beds, sand and silt beds, and defined channel swales. The channel or bed need not contain water year-round. Streams do not include "intentionally created streams" including irrigation and drainage ditches, grass-lined swales and canals, except man-made streams that have been created as mitigation or that provide critical habitat for fish.

"Stream buffer area" means a naturally vegetated and undisturbed, enhanced or revegetated zone surrounding a natural, restored or newly created stream that is an integral part of a stream ecosystem, and protects a stream from adverse impacts to the integrity and value of a stream.

"Stream report" means a report, prepared by a qualified consultant that evaluates stream functions and values, consistent with the format and requirements established by this chapter.

"Structural diversity" means the relative degree of diversity or complexity of vegetation in a habitat area as indicated by the stratification or layering of different plant species; and the spacing or pattern of vegetation.

"Substrate" means the soil, sediment, decomposing organic matter or combination of those located on the bottom surface of the wetland.

"Temporary erosion control" means on-site control measures that are needed to control conveyance or deposition of earth, turbidity or pollutants during development, construction or restoration.

"Type I wetlands" means those wetlands which meet any of the following criteria:

1. The documented presence of, or habitat documented by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for species proposed or listed by the federal government or state of Washington as endangered, threatened, environmentally sensitive or priority;

2. Sites that are documented or qualify as natural heritage wetlands sites, or high quality native wetland communities where significant functional values have not been altered (e.g., soils, hydrology, vegetation), and are not predominantly characterized by nonnative plant species; have not been subject to significant hydrological modification (i.e., those without inflow or outflow systems such as drainage ways, channelization or stormwater diversion); mature forested wetlands greater than one acre in size; estuarine wetlands greater than five acres in area;

3. Wetlands with irreplaceable ecological functions, including: peat wetlands one-half acre or larger in area, and wetlands of any size that meet four of the following criteria: contains at least two wetland habitat classes, shows minimum evidence of human-caused physical alternation, more than three-quarters of the wetland's border is agricultural and/or relatively undisturbed forest or open space;

4. Eelgrasses and kelp beds with greater than fifty percent cover during August or September; or

5. Wetlands equal to or greater than ten acres in size having three or more wetland classes one of which is an open water zone a minimum of one-half acre in area or ten percent of the entire wetland being rated.

"Wetland" or "wetlands" means areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support and that under normal circumstances do support, prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes and bogs and similar areas. Wetlands do not include those artificial wetlands intentionally created from nonwetland sites, including but not limited to, irrigation and drainage ditches, grass-lined swales, canals, detention facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, farm ponds, and landscape amenities. However, wetlands include those artificial wetlands intentionally created to mitigate conversion of wetlands.

"Wetland buffer area" means a naturally vegetated and undisturbed, enhanced or revegetated zone surrounding a natural, restored or newly created wetland that is an integral part of a wetland ecosystem, and protects a wetland from adverse impacts to the integrity and value of a wetland. Wetland buffers serve to moderate run off column and flow rates; reduce sediment, chemical nutrient and toxic pollutants; provide shading to maintain desirable water temperatures; provide habitat for fish and wildlife, and protect wetland resources from harmful intrusion.

"Wetland class" means the U.S. Fish and Fish and Wildlife Service wetland classifications scheme that uses a hierarchy of systems, subsystems, classes and subclasses to describe wetland types (refer to USFWS, December 1979, "Classification of Wetlands, and Deepwater Habitats of the United States" for a complete explanation of the wetland classification scheme). Eleven class names are use to describe wetland and deepwater habitat types. These include: forested wetland, scrub-shrub wetland, emergent wetland, moss-lichen wetland, unconsolidated shore, aquatic bed, unconsolidated bottom, rock bottom, rock shore, stream bed, and reef.

"Wetland delineation" means a procedure performed by a wetland specialist to determine the area of a wetland and to define the boundary between a wetland and adjacent uplands. A wetland specialist according to the federal manual performs delineation, as those terms are defined in this chapter.

"Wetland determination" means a report prepared by a qualified wetland specialist to determine the area of a wetland and to define the boundary between a wetland and adjacent uplands. A wetland specialist according to the federal manual performs delineation, as those terms are defined in this chapter.

"Wetland functions and values" mean the beneficial biological, physical and other purposes generally served by wetlands, including but not limited to, helping to maintain water quality, storing and conveying stormwater and floodwater, recharging groundwater, providing fish and wildlife habitat, and service as areas for recreation, education, scientific study and aesthetic enjoyment.

"Wetlands subclass" means twenty-eight subclass names that are used in the USFWS wetland classification scheme to distinguish between different types of wetland subclasses. Subclass names include, but are not limited to the following: persistent, nonpersistent, broad-leaved deciduous, needle-leafed deciduous and dead. The classification system is fully described in USGWS, 1979, "Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States." (Ord. 00-387 §1(part), 2000)