ARCDBA.Wetland_Special_State_Poly

In Maryland certain wetlands with rare, threatened, endangered species or unique habitat receive special attention. The Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) Title 26, Subtitle 23, Chapter 06, Sections 01 & 02 identifies these Wetlands of Special State Concern (WSSC) and affords them certain protections including a 100 foot buffer from development. The Maryland Department of the Environment is responsible for identifying and regulating these wetlands. In general, the US Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wetlands Inventory wetlands provide the basis for identifying these special wetlands. Additional information, determined from field inspections, is used to identify and classify these areas.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources, as part of its natural resource management objectives, uses this WSSC data for site and regulatory application reviews, management plans and other uses. In 1988-89, Maryland DNR (then responsible for identifying and protecting WSSC's) contracted with Salisbury State University to produce Wetlands Guidance maps that contained Wetlands of Special State Concern (WSSC). Digital WSSC files were produced as part of that effort. In 1997, with new WSSC's identified in COMAR, Maryland DNR began the process of creating an updated file and producing a new series of guidance maps.

The data is considered map accurate at a scale of 1::24,000. Operator ""best judgement"" was used concerning the positional accuracy of manually generated WSSC features. There were no definitive assessments made to determine a quantitative measure of the positional accuracy.