RDR Block lot; Waterview, is in a wetland transition zone and borders on a wetland.. If buffers can be up to 300 feet for wildlife well then more so for Human benefits.
Buffers, the natural, undeveloped area surrounding a wetland, are a crucial part of the wetland system and must be protected along with the wetland. Buffers provide the initial filtering of sediments and other pollutants from runoff water. Buffers also slow and direct runoff water and so are important to wetland hydrology. And buffers provide a visual and noise barrier between the inner core of the wetland and adjacent activities.
The recommended minimum buffer width for a healthy wetland ranges from 50 to 300 feet or more. The width requirement is based on the size of your wetland, the functions it provides, the health of existing vegetation, the wildlife you may want to protect, and adjacent land use. Your Conservation District, county Cooperative Extension office, local planning office or the Department of Ecology can advise you on the minimum requirement for your particular wetland.
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Other benefits
Some of the values associated with your wetland will be your and your alone. No one else can really say what the open space means to you and your family. How your wetland affects your quality of life, and how you value it for its aesthetic contributions are personal matters. You or members of your family may also get personal recreation benefits from your wetland -- nature photography or birding or simply quiet time in a peaceful place.
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The economic benefits associated with these environmental values of wetlands also can be substantial. If, for example, a community had to build flood control or water treatment systems to replace those functions provided by wetlands, the costs could far outweigh the land purchase price of preserving the natural wetland systems. Similarly, when wetlands lose their value as fish habitat, this value is difficult to replace, and the consequent losses to the recreational and commercial fishing industries can be significant. There are as yet no precise formulas that we can use to determine the accurate dollar value per acre of wetland, but the more we learn about wetlands, the higher that value becomes.
The sad irony in all this is that our human activities would create the environmental need for more wetland resources even if they did not damage or destroy our existing wetlands. Our roads, houses, commercial buildings, parking lots -- essentially all of our development -- cause some disruption in the functioning of our watersheds. The hard surfaces prevent water from infiltrating into the soil, and one result is more and faster runoff. If there were more rather than fewer wetlands to handle these consequences of our development, we might be able to maintain the original hydrologic balance. As it is, we not only create the need for more of the environmental functions of wetlands, we also destroy or damage the resources that provide those functions.
We have responded to these environmental needs or our own making by designing and building expensive stormwater control and water purification devices. Our engineering, however, is not nearly as elegant or successful as the natural design. Scientists and engineers have long recognized the limitations of their structures, and are now attempting to return to a naturally functioning system by re-introducing wetlands into the landscape where they once existed.
