Wetlands - Forests Practices Regulation [Washington (State)]
WaTech Geospatial Program Office · 2021 Full Details
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Full Details
- Title
- Wetlands - Forests Practices Regulation [Washington (State)]
- Description
- Click to download Click for metadata Service URL: https://gis.dnr.wa.gov/site2/rest/services/Public_Forest_Practices/WADNR_PUBLIC_FP_Water_Type/MapServer/4 For large areas, like Washington State, download as a file geodatabase. Large data sets like this one, for the State of Washington, may exceed the limits for downloading as shape files, excel files, or KML files. For areas less than a county, you may use the map to zoom to your area and download as shape file, excel or KML, if that format is desired. The DNR Forest Practices Wetlands Geographic Information System (GIS) Layer is based on the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI). In cooperation with the Washington State Department of Ecology, DNR Forest Practices developed a systematic reclassification of the original USFWS wetlands codes into WAC 222-16-035 types. The reclassification was done in 1995 according to the Forest Practice Rules in place at the time. The WAC's for defining wetlands are 222-16-035 and 222-16-050. The DNR Forest Practices Wetlands Geographic Information System (GIS) Layer is based on the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI). In cooperation with the Washington State Department of Ecology, DNR Forest Practices developed a systematic reclassification of the original USFWS wetlands codes into WAC 222-16-035 types. The reclassification was done in 1995 according to the Forest Practice Rules in place at the time. The WAC's for defining wetlands are 222-16-035 and 222-16-050. It is intended that these data be only a first step in determining whether or not wetland issues have been or need to be addressed in an area. The DNR Forest Practices Division and the Department of Ecology strongly supports the additional use of hydric soils (from the GIS soils layer) to add weight to the call of 'wetland'. Reports from the Department of Ecology indicate that these data may substantially underestimate the extent of forested wetlands. Various studies show the NWI data is 25-80% accurate in forested areas. Most of these data were collected from stereopaired aerial photos at a scale of 1:58,000. The stated accuracy is that of a 1:24,000 map, or plus or minus 40 feet. In addition, some parts of the state have data that are 30 years old and only a small percentage have been field checked. Thus, for regulatory purposes, the user should not rely solely on these data. On-the-ground checking must accompany any regulatory call based on these data. The reclassification is based on the USFWS FWS_CODE. The FWS_CODE is a concatenation of three subcomponents: Wetland system, class, and water regime. Forest Practices further divided the components into system, subsystem, class, subclass, water regime, special modifiers, xclass, subxclass, and xsystem. The last three items (xsomething) are for wetland areas which do not easily lend themselves to one class alone. The resulting classification system uses two fields: WLND_CLASS and WLND_TYPE. WLND_CLASS indicates whether the polygon is a forested wetland (F), open water (O), or a vegetated wetland (W). WLND_TYPE, indicates whether the wetland is a type A (1), type B (2), or a generic wetland (3) that doesn't fit the categories for A or B type wetlands. WLND_TYPE = 0 (zero) is used where WLND_CLASS = O (letter "O"). The wetland polygon is classified as F, forested wetland; O, open water; or W, vegetated wetland depending on the following FWS_CODE categories: F O W --------------------------------------------------- Forested Open Vegetated Wetland Water Wetland -------------------------------------------- PFO* POW PUB5 E2FO PRB* PML2 PUB1-4 PEM* PAB* L2US5 PUS1-4 L2EM2 PFL* PSS* L1RB* PML1 L1UB* L1AB* L1OW L2RB* L2UB* L2AB* L2RS* L2US1-4 L2OW ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * indicates inclusion of the subcategory (ie. PEM* includes PEM1F, PEM1FB, etc.). DNR FOREST PRACTICES WETLANDS DATASET ON FPARS Internet Mapping Website: The FPARS Resource Map and Water Type Map display Forested, Type A, Type B, and "other" wetlands. Open water polygons are not displayed on the FPARS Resource Map and Water Type Map in an attempt to minimize clutter. The following code combinations are found in the DNR Forest Practices wetlands dataset: WLND_CLASS WLND_TYPE wetland polygon classification F 3 Forested wetland as defined in WAC 222-16-035 O 0 *NWI open water (not displayed on FPARS Resource or Water Type Maps) W 1 Type A Wetland as defined in WAC 222-16-035 W 2 Type B Wetland as defined in WAC 222-16-035 W 3 other wetland * NWI open water polygons are indicated by WLND_CLASS = O and WLND_TYPE = 0. Open water is used in the USFWS and WAC 222-16-035 classification system. These open water polygons are not included in the FPARS Resource Map and Water Type Map views of this dataset in an attempt to minimize clutter on the FPARS maps.
- Creator
- Washington State Department of Natural Resources
- Publisher
- WaTech Geospatial Program Office
- Temporal Coverage
- Last Modified: 2021-10-25
- Date Issued
- 2017-01-31
- Rights
- The user must be aware of the limitations of these data. It is intended that these data be only a first step in determining whether or not wetland issues have been or need to be addressed in an area. The DNR Forest Practices Division and the Department of Ecology strongly supports the additional use of hydric soils (from the GIS soils layer) to add weight to the call of 'wetland'. Reports from the Department of Ecology indicate that these data may substantially underestimate the extent of forested wetlands. Various studies show the NWI data is 25-80% accurate in forested areas. Most of these data were collected from stereopaired aerial photos at a scale of 1:58,000. The stated accuracy is that of a 1:24,000 map, or plus or minus 40 feet. In addition, some parts of the state have data that are 30 years old and only a small percentage have been field checked. Thus, for regulatory purposes, the user should not rely solely on these data. On-the-ground checking must accompany any regulatory call based on these data.The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) provides these geographic data "as is." DNR makes no guarantee or warranty concerning the accuracy of information contained in the geographic data. DNR further makes no warranties, either expressed or implied as to any other matter whatsoever, including, without limitation, the condition of the product, or its fitness for any particular purpose. The burden for determining fitness for use lies entirely with the user. Although these data have been processed successfully on computers of DNR, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by DNR regarding the use of these data on any other system, nor does the fact of distribution constitute or imply any such warranty. In no event shall the DNR have any liability whatsoever for payment of any consequential, incidental, indirect, special, or tort damages of any kind, including, but not limited to, any loss of profits arising out of use of or reliance on the geographic data or arising out of the delivery, installation, operation, or support by DNR.
- Access Rights
- Public
- Format
- ArcGIS DynamicMapLayer
- Language
- English
- Date Added
- August 10, 2025
- Provenance Statement
- The metadata for this resource was last retrieved from State of Washington Geospatial Open Data Portal on 2025-11-04.
Resource Class
Resource Type
Theme
Place
Local Collection
Cite and Reference
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Citation
Washington State Department of Natural Resources (2017). Wetlands - Forests Practices Regulation [Washington (State)]. WaTech Geospatial Program Office. https://geo.wa.gov/datasets/wadnr::wetlands-forests-practices-regulation (web service) -
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