Wisconsin Administrative Code › Department of Natural Resources › NR 300-399 - Environmental Protection - Water Regulation › Chapter NR 353 - Wetland conservation activities › Section NR 353.03 - Definitions

Current through June 24, 2024
For the purposes of this chapter:
(1) "Aquatic community" means lake or river
				biological resources.
(2) "Complete
				application" means a completed and signed application form, the information
				specified in s.
				NR
				353.06(2) and any other information
				which can reasonably be required from an applicant and which the department
				needs to make a decision.
(3)
				"Degraded wetland" means a wetland subjected to deleterious activities such as
				drainage, excess nutrient runoff, grazing, cultivation, increased stormwater
				input and partial filling, to the extent that natural wetland characteristics
				are compromised and where wetland function is reduced.
(4) "Early successional hydrophyte" means a
				plant adapted to quickly colonize open, disturbed wetlands, which do not
				persist over time and are replaced by perennials that hold space and persist
				over time. Examples of these plants include nut sedge (Cyperus spp.), nettle
				(Urtica dioica), smartweed (Polygonum spp.), wild millet (Echinochloa spp.),
				ragweed (Ambrosia spp.), Beggar's ticks (Bidens spp.) and foxtail (Setaria
				spp.).
(5) "Enhancement" means the
				manipulation of the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of a
				degraded wetland to heighten, intensify or improve specific functions or for a
				purpose such as water quality improvement, flood water retention or wildlife
				habitat.
(6) "Functional values"
				means the physical, chemical and biological processes or attributes that occur
				in a wetland and how society finds certain functions beneficial as listed in s.
				NR
				103.03(1).
(7) "Invasive plant" means plant species that
				invade natural plant communities and wild areas and replace desirable native
				vegetation. Plants known to be invasive in Wisconsin wetlands include, but are
				not limited to: purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria); reed canary grass
				(Phalaris arundinacea); cattails (Typha latifolia and T. angustifolia and their
				hybrid); common and glossy buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica and R. frangula) and
				common reed (Phragmites australis).
(8) "Maintenance" means the removal of a
				threat to, or preventing decline of, wetland conditions and includes activities
				commonly associated with preservation.
(9) "Management" means actions taken at a
				wetland to establish and maintain desired habitat and human use conditions
				including water level manipulations, herbicide application, wetland species
				introduction and control, fencing, monitoring, signage and vandalism
				repair.
(10) "Monoculture" means a
				single species occupying a large area.
(11) "Post settlement deposition" means
				sediment accumulated over original hydric surface soils since European
				settlement of the area.
(12)
				"Preservation" means the protection of ecologically important wetlands in
				perpetuity through the implementation of appropriate legal and physical
				mechanisms.
(13) "Restoration"
				means the manipulation of the physical, chemical or biological characteristics
				of a site with the goal of returning natural or historic functions to former or
				degraded wetland.
(14) "Wetland"
				means an area where water is at, near or above the land surface long enough to
				be capable of supporting aquatic or hydrophytic vegetation and which has soils
				indicative of wet conditions.
(15)
				"Wetland conservation" means activities used in the restoration, enhancement,
				preservation and management of wetlands.