Monitoring at the start and end of the growing season will facilitate and speed up needed corrective actions, such as replacement of plantings, where necessary, and may prevent the loss of a growing season in obtaining a mature vegetative cover. Monitoring schemes more detailed than this may be desirable where detailed performance and condition data are wanted or necessary to evaluate relationships between environmental conditions and wetlands performance or functions. An example is physicochemical conditions in the soils or substrate versus rates of plant growth or water quality processes. This sort of data is more properly the pursuit of a research project, not a strict monitoring activity. In some cases, particularly when a mitigation project is not performing as expected or cannot meet the performance standards established in a preconstruction agreement, collection of such data may be necessary to determine why a site fails to perform.
Agricultural lands are to be defined according to criteria in the Food Security Act Manual.
Farmed wetlands are areas that were placed under cultivation after the passage of the Food Security Act. Farmed wetlands are regulated under Section 404, if they are not being actively cultivated, or if used for purposes for other than agriculture. This means that a Section 404 permit application must be filed for placement of fill in areas identified as farmed wetlands. Prior converted croplands are areas of wetland which were converted to agricultural production prior to passage of the Food Security Act, and are not regulated under Section 404. A Section 404 permit is not required for placement of fill on prior converted cropland.