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ORDINANCE Page 4 of 19 <br />d) Provide standards for proper use of chemical herbicides within critical areas. <br />“Biological assessment” is an evaluation of the potential effects of a proposed action on listed <br />and proposed species and designated and proposed critical habitat and determination whether <br />any such species or habitat is likely to be adversely affected by the action. <br />“Biologist” means a person who has earned a degree in biological sciences from a college or <br />university, with practical experience that includes at least two years’ expertise in matters <br />involving wetlands biology or stream ecology in the Pacific Northwest. <br />“Bog” means wetlands with extensive living sphagnum moss or sphagnum peat and a distinctive <br />flora that results from the acidic substrate. See Wetlands with special characteristics <br />“Buffer” or “Buffer area” means an area which provides the margin of safety through protection <br />of slope stability, attenuation of surface water flows and erosion controls necessary to minimize <br />risk to the public from loss of life or well-being or property damage resulting from natural <br />disasters, or an area which is an integral part of the natural system and which provides shading, <br />input of organic debris and coarse sediments, room for variation in stream or wetland <br />boundaries, habitat for wildlife and protection from harmful intrusion necessary to protect the <br />public from losses suffered when the functions and values of important aquatic resources are <br />degraded that is contiguous to and protects a critical area including vegetated areas those areas, <br />typically vegetated, adjacent to wetlands or other aquatic resources that can reduce impacts <br />from adjacent land uses through various physical, chemical, and/or biological processes. <br />“Buffer management” means an activity proposed by a public agency, public utility, or private <br />entity, and approved by the planning director, within a buffer required by this title, that is <br />proposed to: <br />1A. Reduce or eliminate a verified public safety hazard; <br />2B. Maintain or enhance wildlife habitat diversity; or <br />3C. Maintain or enhance the fishery or other functions of stream, wetland, or <br />terrestrial ecosystems. <br />“Buildable area” means the lot area minus undevelopable areas. <br />“Carbon sequestration” means the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide <br />through biologic, chemical, geologic, or physical processes. <br />“Channel gradient” refers to a measurement over a representative section of at least five <br />hundred linear feet, where available, with at least ten evenly spaced measurement points along <br />the normal stream channel, but excluding unusually wide areas of negligible gradient such as <br />marshy or swampy areas, beaver ponds, and impoundments. Channel gradient may be <br />determined utilizing stream profiles plotted from United States Geological Survey topographic <br />maps (see Washington Forest Practices Board Manual, Section 23) or a more detailed survey <br />specific to the project site and/or area.