The City of St. John’s has adopted new rules and rankings for its key wetlands.

Staff and councillors agree the changes will better define what’s open to development and what’s not.

In the past, wetland reports and assessments had to be completed for every project before the council.

An initial study identified more than 3,000 wetlands of at least 100 square metres in size.

A further study narrowed that down to 88, which was refined to 68 in need of protection after deeper analysis.

Of those, 27 made the final cut to be fully protected.

The remaining 41 will have full or partial protection since they’re already within the floodplain or buffer.

Councillor Maggie Burton says it debunks the notion that the city doesn’t care.

“Some people think that we are not protecting them at all, and that is categorically false,” she said. “Most of the wetlands within the city are not under development pressure, most of the wetlands are protected, and the city is taking into consideration things like climate change and environmental stewardship in its decision-making.”