News Release
| Release Number: | 05-124 |
| Dated: | 9/7/2005 |
| Contact: | Diana J. Fredlund, 503-808-4510 |
PORTLAND, Ore. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced the release of the Draft Arid West Regional Supplement to the 1987 Wetland Delineation Manual.
Prior to the draft supplement, a single standard for delineating wetlands was used for the entire United States, regardless of the type of land being studied. United States lands will be separated into specific regions of similar land characteristics. The Arid West supplement is the second region to be drafted. The supplement will aid in delineating wetlands by identifying the necessary amounts of water, soils and plants that define a wetland in arid areas – generally east of the Cascade Mountain range in Oregon.
The Corps is seeking public input, including scientific information or data, on the proposed hydrology, soils and vegetation indicators and data collection procedures in the draft document.
Reviewers may wish to field test this manual as a part of the public comment procedure. The protocol for testing is to perform wetland delineations using both the 1987 Wetland Delineation Manual and this draft supplement on the same data points. The draft, as well as the testing protocol and questionnaire for each delineation point may be located at ftp://ftp.usace.army.mil/pub/erdc/aird_west/.
Public comments must be received by Nov. 3, 2005 to Katherine Trott, (Attn: CECW-LRD), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 441 G Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20314-1000, or via email to 1987Manual@usace.army.mil. A public notice of the final publication and implementation date for this supplement will be issued by this district.