Florida Administrative Code › 62 - DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › 62 - Departmental › Chapter 62-340 - DELINEATION OF THE LANDWARD EXTENT OF WETLANDS AND SURFACE WATERS › Section 62-340.200 - Definitions

Current through Reg. 50, No. 138; July 16, 2024
When used in this chapter, the following terms shall
				  mean:
(1) "Aquatic plant" means a
				plant, including the roots, which typically floats on water or requires water
				for its entire structural support, or which will desiccate outside of
				water.
(2) "Canopy" means the plant
				stratum composed of all woody plants and palms with a trunk four inches or
				greater in diameter at breast height, except vines.
(3) "Diameter at Breast Height (DBH)" means
				the diameter of a plant's trunk or main stem at a height of 4.5 feet above the
				ground.
(4) "Facultative plants"
				means those plant species listed in subsection
				 62-340.450(3),
				F.A.C., of this chapter. For the purposes of this rule, facultative plants are
				not indicators of either wetland or upland conditions.
(5) "Facultative Wet plants" means those
				plant species listed in subsection
				 62-340.450(2),
				F.A.C., of this chapter.
(6)
				"Ground Cover" means the plant stratum composed of all plants not found in the
				canopy or subcanopy, except vines and aquatic plants.
(7) "Ground truthing" means verification on
				the ground of conditions on a site.
(8) "Hydric Soils" means soils that are
				saturated, flooded, or ponded long enough during the growing season to develop
				anaerobic conditions in the upper part of the soil profile.
(9) "Hydric Soil Indicators" means those
				indicators of hydric soil conditions as identified in Soil and Water
				Relationships of Florida's Ecological Communities (Florida Soil Conservation
				ed. Staff 1992).
(10) "Inundation"
				means a condition in which water from any source regularly and periodically
				covers a land surface.
(11)
				"Obligate plants" means those plant species listed in subsection
				 62-340.450(1),
				F.A.C., of this chapter.
(12)
				"Regulating agency" means the Department of Environmental Protection, the water
				management districts, state or regional agencies, local governments, and any
				other governmental entities.
(13)
				"Riverwash" means areas of unstabilized sandy, silty, clayey, or gravelly
				sediments. These areas are flooded, washed, and reworked by rivers or streams
				so frequently that they may support little or no vegetation.
(14) "Saturation" means a water table six
				inches or less from the soil surface for soils with a permeability equal to or
				greater than six inches per hour in all layers within the upper 12 inches, or a
				water table 12 inches or less from the soil surface for soils with a
				permeability less than six inches per hour in any layer within the upper 12
				inches.
(15) "Seasonal High Water"
				means the elevation to which the ground and surface water can be expected to
				rise due to a normal wet season.
(16) "Subcanopy" means the plant stratum
				composed of all woody plants and palms, exclusive of the canopy, with a trunk
				or main stem with a DBH between one and four inches, except vines.
(17) "Upland plants" means those plant
				species, not listed as Obligate, Facultative Wet, or Facultative by this rule,
				excluding vines, aquatic plants, and any plant species not introduced into the
				State of Florida as of the effective date of this rule.
(18) "U.S.D.A.-S.C.S." means the United
				States Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service.
(19) "Wetlands, " as defined in Section
				 373.019(25),
				F.S., means those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or
				ground water at a frequency and a duration sufficient to support, and under
				normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted
				for life in saturated soils. Soils present in wetlands generally are classified
				as hydric or alluvial, or possess characteristics that are associated with
				reducing soil conditions. The prevalent vegetation in wetlands generally
				consists of facultative or obligate hydrophytic macrophytes that are typically
				adapted to areas having soil conditions described above. These species, due to
				morphological, physiological, or reproductive adaptations, have the ability to
				grow, reproduce or persist in aquatic environments or anaerobic soil
				conditions. Florida wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bayheads, bogs,
				cypress domes and strands, sloughs, wet prairies, riverine swamps and marshes,
				hydric seepage slopes, tidal marshes, mangrove swamps and other similar areas.
				Florida wetlands generally do not include longleaf or slash pine flatwoods with
				an understory dominated by saw palmetto.
Rulemaking Authority
					 373.421 FS. Law Implemented
					 373.421,
					 373.4211
					 FS.
New 7-1-94, Formerly
					 17-340.200.