§ 46-23.1-2 - Definitions.
SECTION 46-23.1-2
§ 46-23.1-2 Definitions. – For the purposes of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply:
(1) "Council" means the coastal resources management council,its director or designee;
(2) "Degraded habitat" means a habitat that has beennegatively affected by human impacts, resulting in the loss or impairment ofthe following ecological functions including, but not limited to: finfish,shellfish, and wildlife nursery, spawning and foraging; water qualitymaintenance; pollutant removal; biological diversity; aquatic productivity;mosquito control; flood and storm damage; and erosion protection;
(3) "Director" means the director of the department ofenvironmental management, or his or her designee;
(4) "Estuary" means a body of water where water from rivers,streams or groundwater meets salt water from the ocean;
(5) "Habitat" means an area or place where plants or animalslive. Rhode Island coastal and estuarine environments include a diversity ofhabitat types that provide food, nesting and resting areas, and shelter forfish and wildlife. For purposes of this chapter, types of habitat include:coastal wetlands, such as salt and brackish marshes; sea grass meadows,including eelgrass (Zostera marina); and widgeon grass (Ruppia maritima); andanadromous fish runs;
(6) "Restoration" means the act, process, or result ofreturning a habitat to an approximation of its condition prior to disturbance.Restoration activities may include, but are not limited to, the reestablishmentof physical parameters, including reestablishing or maintaining hydrology,whether by reestablishing river or tidal flow, restoring flood regimes, orreestablishing topography; control of exotic, non-native or invasive species ofplants or animals; revegetation through native plantings or natural succession;removal of barriers or construction of fish ladders to provide passage forspawning or migrating fish; or controlling, reducing or eliminating otherspecific adverse impacts;
(7) "The program" means the Rhode Island interagency coastaland estuarine habitat restoration program as described in § 46-23.1-5;
(8) "The strategy" means the statewide coastal and estuarinehabitat restoration strategy as described in § 46-23.1-5;
(9) "The trust" means the Rhode Island coastal and estuarinehabitat restoration trust fund, as described in § 46-23.1-3.