Oregon Statutes - Chapter 541 - Watershed Enhancement and Protection; Water Development Projects; Miscellaneous Provisions on Water Rights; Stewardship Agreements - Section 541.351 - Definitions for ORS 541.351 to 541.415.

As used in ORS 541.351 to 541.415:

(1) “Adaptive management” means applying management or practices over time and across the landscape to achieve site specific resource goals using an integrated and science based approach that results in changes over time in response to feedback or monitoring.

(2) “Associated uplands” includes those lands of a watershed that are critical to the functioning and protection of a riparian area.

(3) “Board” means the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board created under ORS 541.360.

(4) “Capital expenditures” means direct expenses related to:

(a) Personal property of a nonexpendable nature including items that are not consumed in the normal course of operations, can normally be used more than once, have a useful life of more than two years and are for use in the enforcement of fish and wildlife and habitat protection laws and regulations; or

(b) Projects that restore, enhance or protect fish and wildlife habitat, watershed functions, native salmonid populations or water quality, including but not limited to:

(A) Expenses of assessment, research, design or other technical requirements for the implementation of a project;

(B) The acquisition of determinate interests, including fee and less than fee interests, in land or water in order to protect watershed resources, including appraisal costs and other costs directly related to such acquisitions;

(C) Development, construction or implementation of a project to restore, enhance or protect water quality, a watershed, fish or wildlife, or riparian or other habitat;

(D) Technical support directly related to the implementation of a project; and

(E) Monitoring or evaluation activities necessary to determine the actual effectiveness of a project.

(5) “Independent Multidisciplinary Science Team” means the scientific team of recognized experts in fisheries, artificial propagation, stream ecology, forestry, range, watershed and agricultural management created under ORS 541.409.

(6) “Native” means indigenous to Oregon and not introduced.

(7) “Oregon Plan” means the guidance statement and framework described in ORS 541.405.

(8) “Protect” or “protection” means to minimize or mitigate adverse effects on salmonid and habitat to the maximum extent practicable given the anticipated duration, geographic scope and primary purpose of proposed activities.

(9) “Restore” or “restoration” means to take actions likely to achieve sustainable population levels of native fish or wildlife and their habitats.

(10) “Riparian area” means a zone of transition from an aquatic ecosystem to a terrestrial ecosystem, dependent upon surface or subsurface water, that reveals through the zone’s existing or potential soil-vegetation complex the influence of such surface or subsurface water. A riparian area may be located adjacent to a lake, reservoir, estuary, pothole, spring, bog, wet meadow, muskeg or ephemeral, intermittent or perennial stream.

(11) “Soil and water conservation district” means a political subdivision of the state as described in ORS 568.550.

(12) “Stewardship” means the careful and responsible management of the environment.

(13) “Tribe” means a federally recognized Indian tribe in Oregon.

(14) “Watershed” means the entire land area drained by a stream or system of connected streams such that all streamflow originating in the area is discharged through a single outlet.

(15) “Watershed council” means a voluntary local organization, designated by a local government group convened by a county governing body, to address the goal of sustaining natural resource and watershed protection, restoration and enhancement within a watershed. [1999 c.1026 §2 (enacted in lieu of 541.350)]

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Last modified: August 7, 2008