62-340.200. Definitions

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 subsection 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.

Specific Authority 373.421 FS. Law Implemented 373.421, 373.4211 FS. History–New 7-1-94, Formerly 17-340.200.