Wyoming Statutes Title 9. Administration of the Government § 9-19-202. Definitions

(i) “Additionality” means the benefits of a compensatory mitigation measure that improve the baseline conditions of impacted resources and their values, services and functions in a manner that is demonstrably new and would not have occurred without the compensatory mitigation measure;

(ii) “Avoidance” means avoiding an impact completely by not taking a certain action or part of an action;

(iii) “Compensatory mitigation” means replacement, substitution or enhancement of ecological functions to offset anticipated losses of those functions caused by impacts to the greater sage grouse;

(iv) “Credit” or “mitigation credit” means a defined unit representing the accrual or attainment of ecological functions or services for the greater sage grouse at a mitigation site or within a mitigation program;

(v) “Debit” means a defined unit representing the loss of ecological functions or services for greater sage grouse at a specific mitigation site or within a mitigation program;

(vi) “Durability” means the effectiveness of a mitigation measure is sustained until the direct, indirect and any other residual impacts of an action on the habitat and population of the greater sage grouse are fully remediated;

(vii) “Ecological function” means the ability of an area to support vegetation and fish and wildlife populations;

(viii) “Effects” mean changes in the environmental conditions that are relevant to the greater sage grouse. Direct effects are caused by an action and occur at the same time and place. Indirect effects are caused by an action but occur at a later time, at another place or both;

(ix) “Habitat assurance” means assurance that compensatory mitigation is adequate to reliably abate threats to greater sage grouse populations and habitat and is adequately offset by more security for habitats and populations where threats have been removed or abated;

(x) “Habitat vulnerability” means actions that occur in highly vulnerable or limiting habitat types that make it more difficult to replace those habitats;

(xi) “Landscape support” means an area encompassing interacting ecosystems and human systems that is characterized by a set of common management concerns;

(xii) “Minimization” means minimizing the impact to habitat and populations by limiting the degree of an action and its implementation;

(xiii) “Mitigation” means all actions to avoid, minimize, restore and compensate for ecological functions;

(xiv) “Performance audit” means an audit conducted to evaluate a mitigation credit provider's compliance with this act and the rules promulgated by the board of land commissioners for the mitigation credit system to ensure that the provider is meeting required habitat, landscape and ecological targets necessary for the continued provision of ecological functions and services for purchased credits;

(xv) “Permitting agency” means the state agency that authorizes a project or action that uses compensatory mitigation credits as mitigation for unavoidable residual impacts associated with the project or action;

(xvi) “Replacement” means a physical and biological metric that will replace an impacted acre with an equal or greater amount of habitat where threats have been removed or abated;

(xvii) “Service area” means a geographic area within which adverse impacts to greater sage grouse that occur may be mitigated or compensated through credits;

(xviii) “Take” means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect or to attempt to engage in that conduct;

(xix) “This act” means W.S. 9-19-201 through 9-19-204.