D. Buffer strip

(1) Goal: The goal of the Commission is to maintain a strip of dense, vegetative cover between the development activity and the resource area to be protected, consisting of indigenous plant materials suitable for the maintenance of wildlife, both flora and fauna.

(2) Function: A buffer strip serves to provide wildlife habitat, improve water recharge, reduce pollution and erosion and to maintain the natural appearance of our fresh and saltwater shorelines.

(3) Size of buffer strip:

• Such a strip shall be a minimum of twenty-five feet (25’) in width running along the resource area boundary, unless such width is unreasonable in view of the lot size, placement of an existing structure or such other factors as the Commission may consider.

(4) The elements of the buffer strip should reflect the indigenous vegetation suitable to the site.

• Coastal banks should be protected from run off and erosion by planting adjacent areas with at minimum low growing salt tolerant shrubs such as roses (Rosa virginiana, Rosa Carolina), bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) and beach plum (Prunus maritime), and/or a border of field grasses mowed only once a year between October and March to a minimum height of 3 inches.
• Approval may be granted to maintain dense plantings at the top of a coastal bank at a three-foot height where necessary for view preservation. Fast-growing shrubs such as Rosa rugosa may be pruned to permit regrowth from the plant’s base.
• Freshwater wetlands should retain their bordering native pond shore shrubs such as blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), swamp azalea (Rhododendron viscosum), sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia), inkberry (Ilex glabra) and herbaceous plants that grow on the edge of the wetland and on to the bank; for example, blue joint grass Calamagrostis canadensis), rushes (Juncus effuses, J. canadensis) and thoroughworts (Eupatorium hyssopifolium, E.perfoliatum).
• Where new plantings are permitted in the Order of Conditions, use of organic fertilizers may be allowed. The use of herbicides should be limited but if needed for invasive plant control, a licensed applicator shall be utilized. Consult Barnstable County Extension Service for further details of I.P.M.
• Plantings which require heavy watering will not be permitted, particularly adjacent to coastal banks where such watering may result in runoff and erosion.
• An access path, not more than four feet (4’) wide through the strip may be maintained by such mowing as is required.

(5) Permissible work in buffer strip: While it is the Commission’s intent that no work shall occur in this strip, any work which is proposed must meet a higher performance standard than work proposed elsewhere in the buffer zone, and will generally be limited to habitat improvement or vista cutting. Vista cutting is limited to pruning, lifting and clearing as defined below. Habitat improvement is described under G, Wildlife Habitat. The Commission may require that a buffer strip be created where none presently exists to mitigate past or present construction impacts.