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DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT <br />Dalton et al. 1990, Harmata 1991, USDI Fish and Wildl. Serv. 1995, Richardson and Miller <br />1997, Calif. Burr. Owl Cons. 1997). <br />Recommended buffers should be considered as optimal stipulations intended to protect nesting <br />and roosting under a wide range of activities statewide. However, they are not necessarily <br />site-specific to proposed projects. Land use planners should evaluate the type and duration of the <br />proposed activity, position of topographic and vegetative features, habituation of breeding pairs <br />to existing activities in the proposed project area, and the local raptor nesting density when <br />determining site-specific buffers. <br />Nest site protection recommendations are devised to: <br />Provide reasonable levels of protection during the raptor nesting and wintering periods by <br />applying appropriate spatial and seasonal buffers zones to nest and roost sites. <br />Preclude impacts to nest sites where possible. <br />Mitigate unavoidable impacts to nest sites. <br />Protection of both occupied and unoccupied nests is important since not all raptor pairs breed <br />every year or utilize the same individual nest within a nesting territory (Scott 1985). Individual <br />raptor nests left unused for a number of years are frequently reoccupied (Table XX - Will show <br />years between occupancy-Laura Romin will do). The importance of individual nest site(s) <br />to overall population stability is unknown, but it is likely that individual sites are selected by <br />breeding pairs for the preferred attributes provided at that location. <br />Occupied Nests are defined as those nests which are used for breeding in the current year <br />by a pair of raptors. Presence of raptors (adults, eggs, or young), freshly molted feathers <br />or plucked down, or current years' mute remains (whitewash) suggest site occupancy. <br />Additionally, for the purposes of these guidelines all breeding sites within a breeding <br />territory are deemed occupied while raptors are demonstrating pair bonding activities and <br />developing an affinity to a given area. If this culminates in an individual nest being <br />selected for use by a breeding pair, then the other nests in the nesting territory will no <br />longer be considered occupied for the current breeding season. A nest site remains <br />occupied throughout the periods of initial courtship and pair bonding, egg laying, <br />incubation, brooding, fledging, and post-fledging dependency of the young. <br />Unoccupied Nests are defined as those nests not selected by raptors for use in the current <br />nesting season. Nests would also be considered unoccupied for the non-breeding period <br />of the year (Tables 9-16). The exact point in time when a nest becomes unoccupied <br />should be determined by a qualified wildlife biologist based upon observations and that <br />the breeding season has advanced such that nesting is not expected. Inactivity at a nest <br />site or territory does not necessarily indicate permanent abandonment. <br />17