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ORDINANCE Page 16 of 19 <br />“Undisturbed, relatively” is defined in question H2.0 of the 2014 Washington State Wetland <br />Rating System for Western Washington. <br />“Unstable soils” means soils which by their physical nature are not suitable to support buildings, <br />roads, utilities or other manmade development related improvements, or which have the <br />potential for slope failure, erosion, or subsidence. Unstable soils include, but are not limited to, <br />those areas defined as landslide hazard areas, erosion hazard areas, and seismic hazard areas, or <br />other soils which have been determined by the public works director or the building official to <br />be unsuitable for building foundations or structural support. <br />“Upper bank” means that portion of the topographic cross-section of a stream which extends <br />from the break in the general slope of the surrounding land to the ordinary high water mark. <br />“Watershed approach” means an analytical process for making compensatory mitigation <br />decisions that support the sustainability or improvement of wetlands in a watershed. It involves <br />consideration of watershed needs, and how locations and types of compensatory mitigation <br />projects address those needs. A landscape perspective is used to identify the types and locations <br />of compensatory mitigation projects that will benefit the watershed and offset losses of wetland <br />functions and services caused by authorized activities. The watershed approach may involve <br />consideration of landscape scale, historic and potential wetland conditions, past and projected <br />wetland impacts in the watershed, and terrestrial connections between wetlands when <br />determining compensatory mitigation requirements. <br />“Wetland boundary” means, for the purposes of the calculation of the area of the wetland, the <br />total extent of the wetland, both on site and off site. <br />“Wetland class” means a description of vegetation habitat based on the predominant life forms <br />that occupy a particular layer of vegetation and possess an aerial coverage of thirty percent or <br />greater of the entire wetland. The basis for these descriptive classes is derived from the <br />Wetlands Taxonomic Classification System of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service <br />(Cowardin et al., 1979). <br />“Wetland, contiguous” means wetland systems connected by hydric soils or a significant surface <br />water connection. For purposes of this title, wetlands will not be considered contiguous if the <br />only hydrologic connection is a Category I, II or III stream, or if the wetlands had historically <br />been connected but are now separated by a legal fill or culvert which is one hundred feet or <br />more in length. <br />“Wetland edge” means the line delineating the outer edge of a wetland established by using the <br />Washington State Wetlands Identification and Delineation Manual (Ecology Publication No. 96- <br />94, 1997). <br />“Wetland delineation” means the method used to establish the existence (location) and physical <br />limits (size) of a wetland for purposes of federal, state, and local regulations. <br />“Wetland, estuarine” means a tidal fringe wetland found along the mouth of a river and <br />influenced by tidal activity. Water flows and depths are controlled by tidal cycles in the adjacent <br />ocean. Estuarine wetlands have a salinity higher than 0.5 parts per thousand. See Wetlands with <br />special characteristics