Exactly right. A “wetland” is any low depression that collects a puddle in a rainstorm. There was a very dangerous intersection in Half Moon Bay, CA where a number of motorists and pedestrians were killed. The city wanted to put in a stop light, but couldn’t because the ditch beside the road was declared a “wetland” and they couldn’t put in any fill to provide a foundation and base for the stoplight standard.
We are governed by idiots with the long arm of the law behind them. Just sickening.
Some years ago, I knew a developer who had done some site prep for a largish suburban commercial office / office-warehouse development. Cut in roads, graded for building pads, and, here’s the key point, put in some curb and gutter. Thing went slow, and the site ended up sitting for a couple years.
One of the building sites had curb and gutter around it such that it trapped rainwater. Guy goes out there and there are some cattails growing. RED FLAG, KLAXON ALARM - that could be considered a wetland!
He very quickly and quietly nuked the cattails and ripped out 20’ or so of the curb and gutter on the downhill side (what downhill there was, it was a pretty flat site) so that the water no longer got trapped. Problem solved.