Wow! All the terraces drain into a central waterway that runs north/south and this waterway is the only "ditch" on my property. Corps says that any portion of this waterway would constitute a wetland...so they're automatically involved.
"The federal regulations implementing Section 404 of the Clean Water Act define wetlands as:
Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water (hydrology) at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation (hydrophytes) typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions (hydric soils). Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas (40 CFR 232.2(r)). Jurisdictional wetlands -- those that are regulated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) under Section 404 -- must exhibit all three characteristics: hydrology, hydrophytes, and hydric soils (US ACOE 1987). It is important to understand that some areas that function as wetlands ecologically, but exhibit only one or two of the three characteristics, do not currently qualify as Corps jurisdictional wetlands and thus activities in these wetlands are not regulated under the Section 404 program. Such wetlands, however, may perform valuable functions. "
http://www.water.ncsu.edu/watershedss/info/wetlands/definit.html
