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<br />Ecology <br /> <br />In addition to the water-quality models described previously, involving <br />biological and chemical processes, certain other possible ecological impacts <br />of energy development might be modeled and included in the analysis. It is <br />not possible to comprehensively model the entire ecosystem of the Vampa River <br />basin in light of time and fiscal constraints of the project, as well as the <br />state-of-the-art in ecol09ical modeling, However, certain important ecologI- <br />cal impacts can be seen to be closely linked to specific aspects of the devel- <br />opment process and, for this reason, demand attention in the analysis. <br /> <br />The model ing and investigative techniques described in this section are <br />proposed as part of the residuals-management analysis in coordination with the <br />basin assessment, Uncertainties regarding timely and successful completion of <br />these components for inclusion in the basin assessment should be kept in mind, <br /> <br />Reclamation <br /> <br />One ecologIcal process of obvious interest is revegetation of reclaimed <br />mining areas, As a part of the res iduals-management analysls, a simulation <br />model of the reclamation process may be developed and applied to specific min- <br />ing sites in the Vampa River basin, One relationship of major importance is <br />the manner in whictr topsoil application and the choice of plant species affect <br />the sediment yields from reclaimed land. <br /> <br />Mining in the.Vampa River basin, to a large extent, represents an alter- <br />nate land use to,ranching, farming, and timber harvesting, Thus, cropland and <br />range management become important activities In the regional analysis, More- <br />over" revegetation programs currently underway at mining aef"eas in the region <br />are oriented towards establ ishing grazing land, so that range management is <br />ultimately an important factor in the reclamation process, Some simple models <br />currently exist relating grazing intensity, to density of plant cover which, in <br />turn, becomes a term in sediment-yield equations (U,S, Department of Agricul- <br />ture,..1961; Roth and others, 1974; Stoddart and others, 1975), These models <br />will be evaluated for possible application to the basin as'sessment, <br /> <br />Sport Fisheries <br /> <br />One likely result of possible increased sediment loads in the Yampa River <br />and its tributaries would be a reduction in fish survival:and reproduction-- <br />particularly in the case of trout populations which represent an extremely im- <br />portant recreational resource in the bas in, Suspended sonds at .even moderate <br />concentrations, in the order of 100 mg/l (mi lligrams per IHre) or greater, <br />are known to lead directly to mortal ity of adult trout, as well as to the de- <br />struction of gravel~spawning areas (Alabaster, 1972), A model of trout sur- <br />vival and spawning success is proposed for development that will accept input <br />data on sediment concentrations generated by the sediment-transport model. <br /> <br />A,considerable amount of data on trout reproduction and growth has been <br />collected in experiments and field studies of brook, brown~ and rainbow trout <br />populations in Colorado, Of particular value in the prop.osed modeling effort <br />will be the large number of studies completed by Klein (1974) of the Colorado <br />Division of Wildlife on trout populations in basins neighboring the Vampa. <br /> <br />24 <br />