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wetlands and the lack of riparian connections and permeable bank materials. Secondary functions include cultural, economic, aesthetic and education. Overall, the most important wetlands are the four separate areas of reed canary grass emergent wetland comprising Wetland Area 2. Although they have low vascular plant diversity, their mechanical filtration abilities are high and they receive and treat a significant amount of runoff on an annual basis. Annual high water periods also make them important as reliable breeding habitat for cricket frogs and other amphibians. C. Wetland Functional Impacts - Alternative B 1) Primary The primary impacts will be the placement of 1,300 cubic yards of road fill over a total of 14,500 square feet (0.333 acres) of wetland, in two separate areas. The fill will consist of subsoil, a crushed stone base course and asphalt. A corresponding, minor amount of wetland habitat, consisting of buckthorn shrub fringe and reed canary grass meadow, will be lost, along with a minor amount of stormwater storage and runoff filtration capacity. No wetland habitat corridors will be severed by the proposed action. 2) Secondary Over time, secondary wetland impacts will be beneficial in the categories of storm water filtration and water quality maintenance due to the removal of demolition waste in 2.20 acres of wetlands, and the construction and installation of the proposed storm water management system. Breeding habitat for amphibians will increase, as will forage and cover habitat for wading birds and waterfowl. Some additional adverse biological impacts will occur, from the standpoint of community ecology, as adjacent uplands are cleared and developed over time. The clearing of upland forests and conversion to lawns and developed areas will reduce forage and cover opportunities for woodland perching birds and mammals, which otherwise would maintain site fidelity because of the integrated mixture of uplands and wetlands over most of the parcel. As a result, wildlife use of the wetlands for forage and cover will be reduced overall. Deer, in particular, will be affected adversely by the increase in traffic and activity, as well as by the reduction in cover. From a legal standpoint, the status of the remaining wetlands will be greatly improved by the establishment of permanent wetland easements that includes approximately 8.8 acres of uplands, some of it good-quality mesic hardwood forest. 3) Cumulative Cumulative impacts result from repeated actions of the same type and are often difficult to predict. The principal features of this project include the industrial subdivision of vacant Mead&Hunt C236A002\C236-97A\12-97 8