Chapter 4 Habitats
4.3 Wetland Natural Communities 4.3.1 Introduction
Wetlands perform many ecosystem services, including flood protection and pollution control, and they provide essential breeding, rearing, and foraging sites for numerous fish and wildlife species. Wetlands are defined by hydrology (wetness), plant community composition, and soil characteristics (FGDC 2013; Cowardin et al. 1979) . From a landscape perspective, they function as transitional lands between terrestrial and aquatic systems where the water table is at or near the land surface or where the land is covered by shallow water (FGDC 2013; Cowardin et al. 1979) . Wetlands are regulated under the Clean Water Act, Sections 404 and 401, and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has regulatory authority over impacts to sites that have been delineated as jurisdictional resources (USACE 1987) . Wetlands that fall under regulatory authority have one or more of three attributes: they support predominantly hydrophytic vegetation at least periodically; the substrate is predominantly undrained hydric soil; or the substrate is nonsoil and is saturated with water or covered by shallow water at some time during the growing season each year (FGDC 2013) . Hydrophytic vegetation are plants that grow in water or on a substrate (e.g., soil) that is at least periodically deficient in oxygen as a result of excessive water content (Cowardin et al. 1979) . Hydric soils are wet long enough to periodically produce anaerobic conditions, thereby influencing the growth and type of plants that occur (Cowardin et al. 1979) . There are several methods for characterizing wetlands that are based on dominant vegetation communities, dominant soil characteristics, or dominant hydrologic factors. One method defines them based on the relationship between hydrology, geomorphology, and function (Brinson 1993) . The approach places emphasis on the importance of abiotic features such as the chemical characteristics of water, habitat maintenance, and water storage and transport. In this document, wetland communities are defined based on descriptions by Schafale and Weakley (1990) and Schafale (2012) , which use dominant vegetation characteristics and hydrology as a basis for their descriptions. The Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA has narrowed the scope of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act by revising the definition of "waters of the United States" to only include wetlands that exhibit a continuous surface connection to navigable waters (Marsh 2024; Lazarus 2023; Mintz 2012). Consequently, the EPA and the USACE no longer possess regulatory authority over wetlands deemed "isolated" because they lack a direct, permanent connection to surface waters. This revision in federal jurisdiction has prompted the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) to propose changes to the definition of wetlands under state rule 15A NCAC 02B .0202. These regulatory modifications will likely affect thousands of acres of wetlands in North Carolina, with significant implications for the species that rely on these ecosystems for habitat, reproduction, and other life-cycle processes.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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