§ 17-2. Permitted uses.

The following uses of and activities in wetlands are authorized if otherwise permitted by law:

(a)

The construction and maintenance of noncommercial catwalks, piers, boathouses, boat shelters, fences, duckblinds, wildlife management shelters, footbridges, observation decks and shelters and other similar structures, provided that such structures are so constructed on pilings as to permit the reasonably unobstructed flow of the tide and preserve the natural contour of the wetlands;

(b)

The cultivation and harvesting of shellfish, and worms for bait;

(c)

The noncommercial outdoor recreational activities, including hiking, boating, trapping, hunting, fishing, shellfishing, horseback riding, swimming, skeet and trap shooting, and shooting on shooting preserves, provided that no structure shall be constructed except as permitted in subsection (a) of this section;

(d)

Other outdoor recreational activities, provided they do not impair the natural functions or alter the natural contour of the wetlands;

(e)

Grazing, haying, and cultivating and harvesting agricultural, forestry or horticultural products;

(f)

Conservation, repletion and research activities of the Commission, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and other conservation-related agencies;

(g)

The construction or maintenance of aids to navigation which are authorized by governmental authority;

(h)

Emergency measures decreed by any duly appointed health officer of a governmental subdivision acting to protect the public health;

(i)

The normal maintenance and repair of, or addition to, presently existing roads, highways, railroad beds, or facilities abutting on or crossing wetlands, provided that no waterway is altered and no additional wetlands are covered;

(j)

Governmental activity in wetlands owned or leased by the commonwealth or a political subdivision thereof; and

(k)

The normal maintenance of manmade drainage ditches, provided that no additional wetlands are covered. This subsection does not authorize the construction of any drainage ditch. (3-4-93, § 3.)