GLOSSARY

The following terms are among those used in the West Eugene Wetlands Study which may not be familiar to many readers.

AGRICULTURAL WETLAND: "Wetlands which were both manipulated and cropped before 12/23/85, but which continue to exhibit important wetland values." (S CS) Normally an area must contain three factors to be considered a wetland under the jurisdiction of the state and federal wetland laws (see "Wetland" definition). One exception is when an activity has removed one of those factors. Areas where wetlands soils and hydrology remain, but wetland plants have been removed to allow a crop to be grown are called "agricultural wetlands" or "disturbed areas". A rye grass field that is seasonally flooded or ponded for 15 or more consecutive days during the growing season is an example of an agricultural wetland in west Eugene. If it can be assumed that wetland plants would become re-established if the farming ceased, then the area may be considered a jurisdictional wetland, even though all three factors are not present This definition of agricultural wetlands is still undergoing debate at the national level.

BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMP's): Management practices or techniques used to guide design and construction of new development or infrastructure improvements to minimize adverse environmental impacts. Often organized into a list of practices, from which those practices most suited to a specific site can be chosen to halt or offset anticipated problems. BMP's for a construction site might include: placement of barriers to prevent sediments from entering streams, contour grading, using selected plantings to stop soil erosion during the rainy season, retention of vegetation along a stream, and controlling heavy equipment operations at stream crossings.

BIOFILTER OR BIOLOGICAL FILTER: Using vegetation and water features as a means of filtering pollution from stormwater or streams, water is passed over grassy areas, through sediment traps, and through specially created ponds which trap pollutants or allow them to settle out of the water stream.

BUFFER: A designated area along the perimeter of a stream or wetland which is regulated to control (resist, absorb, or otherwise preclude) the negative effects of adjacent development from intruding into the natural area beyond the buffer.

CANDIDATE ENDANGERED OR THREATENED SPECIES: A species which has been nominated for placement on the federal Endangered or Threatened Species List, but has not been given official status yet for any number of reasons. (See also "Endangered" and Threatened").

COMPREHENSIVE MONITORING AND MAINTENANCE PROGRAM (CMMP): This program establishes provisions for the monitoring of existing wetland resources and wetlands created, restored or enhanced as a result of wetland mitigation requirements. Wetland mitigation efforts will be monitored against performance standards established during the permitting process and the corrective actions to be taken when these standards are not met. The quantity and quality of surface water, soils, quantity and diversity of wildlife species and general habitat conditions are the primary factors to be monitored. The program includes maintenance practices such as erosion control, debris and litter removal, selective plant removal and replacement, sedimentation removal, and water level manipulation.

COMPREHENSIVE WETLAND MITIGATION PROGRAM (CWMP): This is a comprehensive program that facilitates and guides wetland mitigation requirements. The program details the wetland functions, values and acreages to be replaced as a result of anticipated wetland losses. It establishes the objectives, location, timing, performance levels, monitoring requirements and the amount of financial guarantee to be provided for insuring successful mitigation.

CONSTRUCTED WETLAND: A facility that exhibits wetland characteristics but was constructed for the express purpose to perform a utility need, such as a sedimentation pond, and is not eligible for mitigation credit or subject to the jurisdictional requirements of federal and state wetland law.

CREATED WETLAND: For the purpose of receiving mitigation credit, the alteration of soils, hydrology, and plants to produce a wetland where no wetland previously existed.

DELINEATION: Determining the boundaries of a jurisdictional wetland. The delineation may be marked in the field or on a map or aerial photograph.

DISTURBED AREA OR WETLAND: See definition of "Agricultural Wetland"

DRAINAGE MASTER PLAN (DMP): Refers to the Eugene Areawide Drainage Master Plan, 1990, a study of stormwater facilities and needs in the Eugene urban growth boundary (see "UGB" definition). This plan was produced by a consultant for the City of Eugene Public Works Department and consists of six volumes.

ECOLOGY: The study of interrelationships within living systems, including plants, animals, insects, water, soil, air and energy.

EMERGENT; An erect, rooted, herbaceous wetland plant that may be temporarily or permanently flooded at its base but is nearly always exposed at the upper portion. Most swamps, bogs, marshes and prairie wetlands contain emergent vegetation.

ENDANGERED: A plant of animal that is "in danger of becoming extinct within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of their range." Under the federal Endangered Species Act, plant and animal species may be listed as either threatened or endangered.

ENHANCEMENT: To improve one or more values in an existing wetland. The improvements may be to soils, water, or plants. Enhancement may improve a particular wetland value at the expense of other values. For example, diking an area to create a marsh environment for waterfowl nesting may flood a grassy wetland and reduce habitat for small rodents such as mice and voles.

FORB: A non-woody plant, other than grass, including wildflowers and plants which some refer to as "weeds".

404 (WETLAND) PERMIT: A permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act which allows an activity (filling) within a wetland. A 404 permit usually requires compensation or mitigation for the allowed use in a wetland.

GREENWAY: A system of parks and open spaces along a stream or channel which forms a corridor for water and wildlife movement and for human recreation.

GROUNDWATER: Water under the earth's surface that supplies streams, rivers, wells and springs.

HYDRIC SOIL: Soils that are saturated, flooded, or ponded long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions that favor the growth and regeneration of hydrophytic vegetation.

HYDROLOGY: The study of the properties, distribution and circulation of water, specifically water on the surface or land, in the soil and underlying rocks, and in the atmosphere. Also used to refer to the characteristics of water flow in or on a given site.

HYDROPHYTIC PLANTS OR HYDROPHYTES: These are plants adapted to live in wetland conditions.

IMPERVIOUS SURFACE: Surfaces which prohibit water from soaking into the ground. Concrete, asphalt and rooftops are the most common urban impervious surfaces.

JURISDICTIONAL WETLAND: A wetland determined to be subject to requirements of the federal Clean Water Act and Oregon's fill and removal statute.

MITIGATION: This term has two meanings, both of which are used in this plan:

1. The actual enhancement, restoration, or creation of wetlands to compensate for
permitted wetland losses in terms of area and wetlands functions and values, and,

2. to protect wetlands by avoiding damage to them (i.e., long-term wetland protection status), by altering the design or timing of development to minimize negative impacts on wetlands, or by reducing external negative impacts (e.g., treating water pollution before it enters a wetland or creating a buffer area between the wetland and adjacent development).

MITIGATION BANK: Wetland enhancement, restoration, or creation undertaken to provide mitigation (compensation) for wetlands losses from future development activities. The bank involves enhancing, restoring or creating wetlands in advance of development of a wetland as part of a credit program.

MITIGATION CREDITS: Through a wetland bank system, credits may be purchased from a mitigation bank to compensate for permitted wetland development. A predetermined formula sets the amount of payment into the bank required prior to issuance of permits or development

NATIVE PLANTS: Plants that occur naturally in the Southern Willamette Valley.

NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES): A permitting system devised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to administer provisions of the federal Clean Water Act. In Oregon the permitting system has been delegated by the EPA to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). First applied to water quality in municipal sanitary waste discharges, the permitting system is now being expanded to apply to municipal storm water quality.

PALUSTRINE WETLAND SYSTEM: A freshwater wetland dominated by trees, shrubs, and emergent vegetation. Other systems include marine, estuarine, riverine, and lacustrine (deep water, such as lakes).

RARE SPECIES: Often used to describe species on the official state or federal "Threatened and Endangered Species" lists. In the West Eugene Wetlands Study, "rare" has two meanings: 1) a species which is does not have threatened or endangered status, but is present in small numbers throughout its range, and 2) a plant community which was once widespread, but is now extremely limited in its distribution. For example, the prairie grasslands once covered thousands of acres in the Willamette Valley, but now are restricted to fewer than 20 locations in Lane and Benton Counties.

REGIONAL PERMIT: This is a general permit issued to a governmental entity by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A regional permit for Eugene means that developing a wetland and mitigating for its loss would occur in accordance with this Plan and its background studies and inventories. Once issued, the regional permit authorizes the City to issue individual wetland impact permits to those areas identified for development by this Plan. The ACOE and EPA would still have oversight to insure that the City is administering federal laws and regulations in a proper manner.

RESTORATION: To improve a disturbed wetland by returning wetland parameters which may be missing; adding soils, water, or plants. The restoration may return a missing or damaged wetland

function to achieve a desired outcome; for example, removing an agricultural crop and planting native seeds to produce a wet prairie grassland.

RIPARIAN: The land bordering a stream or river; also pertaining to the vegetation typical of those borders (grasses, shrubs, and trees such as reed canary grass, spiraea, willows, ash and cottonwoods.

SCRUB-SHRUB WETLAND: This type of wetland includes woody plants such as shrubs and small trees under 20 feet in height. They may represent a successional stage to a forested wetland.

SECTION 404 PERMIT: See 404 (wetlands) permit definition.

STORMWATER/STORMWATER RUNOFF: Rain which travels over land surfaces and drains into the street gutters or storm sewer pipes and is discharged into a ditch, channel, stream or river. The velocity and peak volume of stormwater runoff is increased by impervious surfaces such as roofs, driveways, parking lots, and asphalt streets. As stormwater travels over the land, it accumulates pollutants from roofs, yards, driveways, streets, and industrial and commercial land uses.

STORMWATER USER FEE: A storm sewer charge collected from users based on their respective contribution to stormwater runoff and stormwater pollution. This fee would be used to pay directly for some of the stormwater utility's responsibilities, a portion of which would be devoted to the wetlands program.

STORMWATER UTILITY: A branch of the public works department that would be established to deal with stormwater, flood control, wetlands, and water quality matters in terms of planning, designing, maintaining, monitoring, financing, and administering those functions as part of the City of Eugene's on-going organization.

SUCCESSION: The sequence and process of changes in plant communities over time. Species, structure and communities evolve into a stable system. For example, the prairie grasslands may be invaded by young ash trees; then an ash forest forms; then Douglas fir trees invade the ash forest; eventually, the ash forest becomes a fir forest, which maintains itself over time.

SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT CHARGE (SDC): A fee charged to new development to help pay for the capital costs associated with new growth. A portion of the City of Eugene's SDC may help pay for the stormwater utility functions, including the wetlands program.

TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (TAC): This is a state and federal agency group created to provide local staff with advice on conduct of the west Eugene Wetlands Special Area Study. The TAC consisted of representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, and Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Oregon Division of State Lands.

THREATENED: A plant or animal likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future.

URBAN GROWTH BOUNDARY (UGB): A site-specific line in the Metropolitan Plan that separates existing and future urban development from rural lands. Urban levels and densities of development, complete with urban levels of services, are planned within the UGB. Outside the UGB, rural lands are planned for farm and forest uses or for rural levels of development with accompanying rural levels of services

WEST EUGENE WETLANDS SPECIAL AREA STUDY (WEWSAS): WEWSAS is the study which included development of this Plan and the accompanying Technical Report. The study was guided by the Eugene Planning Commission. It involved an intergovernmental staff team, use of consultants, a Technical Advisory Committee, and a series of public workshops with project management provided by the Lane Council of Governments.

WET PRAIRIE GRASSLAND: A unique type of wetland which once covered vast areas of the Willamette Valley floor. This term is used to describe a plant community dominated by tufted hairgrass, Deschampsia cespitosa. This wetland type is typically saturated or slightly flooded in the winter, but is dry in the summer and early fall. The wet prairie grasslands in west Eugene are the habitat for five species considered to be rare, threatened, or endangered in Oregon.

WETLAND: Wetlands are areas where water exists at or near the land's surface in flooded or saturated soils in sufficient amounts during the March to October growing season to sustain wetland types of plants. Generally, three factors must be present in a wetland: 1) hydric soils (those soils officially identified as being wetland-type soils), 2) water (surface or groundwater within the root growing zone or upper 18 inches of soil), and 3) predominance of plants that are recognized as wetland species. There are several types of wetlands in west Eugene, including agricultural, marshes, ash forests, shrub-scrub, and prairie grasslands. The agricultural wetlands are an exception to the three factor definition used here (see "Agricultural Wetlands" definition).

WETLAND EVALUATION TECHNIQUE (WET): This is a computer assisted method for assessing wetland functions and values, including social significance, effectiveness, and opportunities. It includes information on 12 wetland functions and values such as rare species, unique heritage, floodflow alteration, sediment stabilization, nutrient removal, wildlife and aquatic species diversity and abundance, recreation, and groundwater recharge.

WETLAND PERMIT: If fill or drainage activities are planned in a jurisdictional wetland, individual permits may be issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (see "404 (Wetland) Permit" definition) and the Oregon Division of State Lands. If the activity cannot be justified, no state or federal permit will be issued. If the activity is justified, the permit may require compensatory mitigation to replace the acreage and values of the wetland allowed to be developed.