§8302 Definitions

Summary

Defines key words used in the chapter about coastal habitats and how work on them is done. Coastal ecosystem means the living things and their habitats in a coastal area. Coastal habitat assessment means checking a site’s physical, chemical, and biological functions to see its value for fish and wildlife. Coastal habitat enhancement means changing parts of an ecosystem to increase or decrease specific functions that help fish and wildlife. Coastal habitat planning means making a full plan that describes the ecosystem, sets protection/restoration/enhancement goals and priorities, explains methods, sets a timeline, and names who will do what. Coastal habitat protection means long-term actions to safeguard wildlife habitat and includes helping set up conservation easements or buying land by federal or non-federal partners. Coastal habitat restoration means changing ecosystem features to restore, as fully as practical, natural biological functions to lost or degraded native habitat. Coastal landscape means parts of a coastal ecosystem like wetlands, rivers or streams, bays or estuaries, seagrass beds or reefs, beaches or dunes, mangrove forests, and nearby uplands. Coastal State includes States in or bordering the Atlantic, Pacific, or Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Long Island Sound, or one or more Great Lakes; and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau, and the United States Virgin Islands. Federal trust species means migratory birds, species listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), interjurisdictional fish, and marine mammals the Secretary manages. Financial assistance means Federal funding by grant or cooperative agreement to Federal, State, local, or Tribal governments, nongovernmental institutions, nonprofit organizations, or private individuals and entities. Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior. Service means the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Technical assistance means collaboration, facilitation, or consulting on planning, assessment, protection, restoration, or enhancement projects in which the Service supplies scientific knowledge, skills, and expertise.