|
The deliverable product of a WETLAND DELINEATION PLAN in PDF format (size is 800 KB) meets or exceeds the criteria necessary for regulatory approval.
Wetland boundaries are located with differentialing GPS equipment, which is subsequently processed by a Professional Land Surveyor.
Wetlands of Special Significance, as defined by MDEP under Maine's NRPA, and other Protected Natural Resources such as vernal pools and streams, are identified during the WETLAND DELINEATION.
For US Army Corps of Engineers regulations under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, jurisdictional determinations are completed in the field.
|
|
A soil
pit showing a well drained, upland spodosol soil.
|
|
|
A palustrine,
scrub-shrub wetland dominated by Alnus incana, Cornus
amomum, Betula populifolia, Acer rubrum, Carex crinita,
Calamagrostis canadesis, and Iris versicolor.
|
I
am pleased to be able to provide wetland delineation services
to clients
in northern and eastern Maine. Wetland - upland boundaries
can be
accurately located, mapped, and appropriate wetland - upland
data compiled
in order to comply with Federal, State, and Town regulations.
This work can
assist in project planning, real estate evaluation, storm
water management,
and other development or conservation projects.
Wetland delineations arose from passage of the Clean Water Act §404,
which
prohibits the discharge of dredged or fill material into
waters of the
United States - rivers, lakes, streams, and wetlands - unless
a permit from
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) has been authorized
or the activity
is permitted by exemption. These regulations seek to "maintain
and restore
the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters
of the United
States." (1987 ACOE Wetlands Delineation Manual). In 1995
Maine¹s Natural
Resource Protection Act (NRPA) was amended to include jurisdiction
over all
wetlands in the State. The Maine Department of Environmental
Protection
(MDEP) is responsible for reviewing activities that will
affect freshwater
wetlands. MDEP developed a three-tiered permitting system
based on the area
of potential wetland impact.
 |
A piston core from a carbonate
lake in Aroostook County.The gray sediment at the base
is characteristic of late-glacial age (10,000 to 12,000
years before present); the tan layered marl sediments
represent lowered lake levels from 9,000 to 5,000 years
B.P., and the dark brown upper sediments indicate deeper,
more acidic water conditions similar to the modern
environment.
|
Wetlands are one component of the "waters of the United
States"; wetlands
can take many forms in Maine: peatlands, fringing marshes adjacent
to ponds,
floodplain forest, wet meadows, intermittent streams, scrub-shrub
swamp
(alder, willow, viburnum, holly), and forested fens and bogs.
All share
physical characteristics that classify them as wetlands: "Those
areas that
are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency
and
duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances
do
support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life
in saturated
soil conditions."(1987 ACOE).
Wetlands are determined by evaluation of three parameters: hydrology,
soils,
and vegetation. Aquic conditions must be present to meet hydrologic
requirements, hydric soils must dominate the wetland, and hydrophytic
vegetation must also be dominant in order to classify an environment
as a
wetland.
Closed basins such as lakes, ponds, bogs, and associated wetlands
often
contain continuous records of sedimentation. Since deglaciation
approximately 12,000 years ago, annual layers of sediment, plant
remains,
and pollen have accumulated and become preserved in the anoxic
bottom waters
of these basins. Using piston
|
|
A coastal
peatland dominated by Ericaceae and Sphagna.
|
coring from a platform at the surface,
continuous records of sediment can be retrieved. Cores are
subsampled and
analysed for macrofossil remains, organic and carbonate content,
radiocarbon
determinations, and stable isotopes (d13C and d18O). Analyses
from these
cores can provide data that document: 1) The time of formation
of the basin;
2) The changing forests/ecosystems in the watershed through
time; 3) A
history of lake levels (paleohydrology) since deglaciation;
and, 4)
Implications/interpretations for this data.
For example, a recent Phase III archaeological site investigation,
located
on uplands adjacent to a lake shoreline, required a paleohydrologic
investigation. Results from the paleohydrologic study showed
significant
lake level fluctuations during the last 9,000 years. The lake¹s
surface
area had diminished, its outlet had ceased flowing, and a modern
inlet
stream was functioning as the outlet. These findings suggested
that
archaeological settlement patterns were probably substantially
different
than the modern configuration of the lake basin would suggest.
|
