Title 46
Waters and Navigation

Chapter 23.1
The Coastal and Estuary Habitat Restoration Program and Trust Fund

§ 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 been negatively affected by human impacts, resulting in the loss or impairment of the following ecological functions including, but not limited to: finfish, shellfish, and wildlife nursery, spawning and foraging; water quality maintenance; pollutant removal; biological diversity; aquatic productivity; mosquito control; flood and storm damage; and erosion protection;

(3) “Director” means the director of the department of environmental 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 animals live. Rhode Island coastal and estuarine environments include a diversity of habitat types that provide food, nesting and resting areas, and shelter for fish 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); and anadromous fish runs;

(6) “Restoration” means the act, process, or result of returning a habitat to an approximation of its condition prior to disturbance. Restoration activities may include, but are not limited to, the reestablishment of physical parameters, including reestablishing or maintaining hydrology, whether by reestablishing river or tidal flow, restoring flood regimes, or reestablishing topography; control of exotic, non-native or invasive species of plants or animals; revegetation through native plantings or natural succession; removal of barriers or construction of fish ladders to provide passage for spawning or migrating fish; or controlling, reducing or eliminating other specific adverse impacts;

(7) “The program” means the Rhode Island interagency coastal and estuarine habitat restoration program as described in § 46-23.1-5;

(8) “The strategy” means the statewide coastal and estuarine habitat restoration strategy as described in § 46-23.1-5;

(9) “The trust” means the Rhode Island coastal and estuarine habitat restoration trust fund, as described in § 46-23.1-3.