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4 <br /> (a) This subsection establishes requirements for wetland buffer areas around protected wetlands. <br /> Buffer areas are necessai•y and beneficial to maintain the health of wetlands. Buffer areas protect the ed�e of <br /> wetlands from erosion while filtering sediment, chemicals and other nutrients from runoff that drains into <br /> wetlands. Buffer areas can improve the biolo�ical diversity and health of a wetland environment while reducing <br /> the adverse impacts of hwnan activities. <br /> (b) Buffer ac•eas regulated by this section are areas of vegetative cover that are upland of the wetland <br /> edge, and tllat occur in a ►Zatural condition or throu�h restoration. Buffer areas consist of sllrubbery and trees, <br /> native grasses and/or forbs that ace not mowed, fertilized or manicured in any manner. Mowin�, fertilizing, <br /> manictu�ing, or vegetation cemoval within a buffer area is not allowed unless the city }1as issued a permit for <br /> such activity in conjunction with an approved buffer management plan. <br /> (1) Acceptable buffer areas shall have the followin� qualities: <br /> a. A continuous dense layer of perennial �rasses that have been imcultivated or unbcoken <br /> for at least ten consecutive years, or <br /> b. An over story of trees and/or shrubs with at least SO percent canopy closure that have <br /> been uncultivated or unbroken for at least ten consecutive years, or <br /> c. A mixture of the plant communities described in a. aild b. above, which have been <br /> uncultivated or unbroken for at least ten consecutive years. <br /> (2) Unacceptable buffer areas have the followina qualities, including but not limited to: <br /> a. Undesirable plant species (includin� but not limited to reed canary grass, common <br /> buckthorn, purple loosestrife, leafy spurge and noxious weeds), or <br /> b. Lacl:ing a layer of organic thatch o►•duff, or <br /> c. Topo�raphy which tends to channelize the flow of surface runoff, or <br /> d. Is characteristically unfikely to retain nutrients and sedime�lt. <br /> (3) Buffer areas which have been broken or cultivated within the past ten consecutive years must be <br /> restored to a condition consistent with an acceptable buf['er area defined in section 78- <br /> 160�(b)(1), a restoration or landscape plan must be submitted to the plannin; director, which <br /> restoration shall include, rep(a►ltina and maintaining accordin�to each of the fol{owin, <br /> �uidelines: y <br /> a. Buffer areas shall be planted with a seed mi� containing 100 perce�lt perennial native <br /> piant species. except for a one-time planting of an annual nurse or cover crop such as oats <br /> or i•ve. <br /> b. The seed mil to be used shall consist ol�at least 1? po�ulds pure live seed (PLS) per acre <br />