I own about 20 acres of wetlands adjacent to a creek. The land is in the creek's floodplain. It is dry 99% of the time but does flood maybe once a year. It has several small slews on it.

First Question:
The adjacent creek eventually flows into a river that flows into a navigable waterway. My land is at lesst 200 miles from the navigable waterway. Does the corp have jursdiction or can I fill in some areas?

Second Question:
Are there any economical uses of the land without filling some of it in? It has a good hardwood stand but the loss of scenery outweighs the money from logging to me. I primarily hunt on it now.

Thanks for any info,
Bob

Bob,

You have two issues here: 1 wetland, 2 floodplain.

1 Wetland: is it a wetland at all? If it is truly dry 99% of the time, then it would not be a wetland. It sounds like there are some parts that are more wet than others. The dryer parts might not be wetland. You should get it delineated.
As for whether or not it is regulated by the Corps, I would suggest you assume that it is until you have confirmation otherwise. There is a great deal of debate on what makes a wetland regulated when you get into the upper reaches of a watershed. I assume Johnny Stevens will comment on this.

As for economical uses, as you state, the most obvious is timber and hunting. There are other limited agricultural uses of wetlands. Another would be to sell it as fill mitigation depending on your local rules. However, you will need to be creative if you want to make an income from the land without timbering.

2 Floodplain: Even if the area is not wetland, most states have jurisdiction over floodplains via federal law. While not as stringent as wetland regulation, you still may need a permit and would probably have to do compensating cuts. Also, if you want to build anything, you would probably have to apply to change the FEMA flood mapping.