Laserfiche WebLink
<br />r l.' ~ (': <br />"td 1I~ <br /> <br />This action will have no effect on mountain plover or its critical habitat. Range lands, such as that <br />which will be impacted by this alternative's ground disturbing activities, typically must have a <br />minimum of 80-250 acres of short grass vegetation to be suitable for mountain plover habitat. <br />Suitable short grass vegetation is usually the result of moderate to heavy grazing, large prairie dog <br />colonies or certain cultivation practices (Federal Register 2002, USGS 2003). However, this area has <br />not been grazed for many years, does not contain a suitable prairie dog colony within the alignment or <br />in close proximity, and has never been under cultivation, <br /> <br />Cultural Resources <br /> <br />Affected Environment <br /> <br />The National IDstoric Preservation Act and 36 CPR Part 800 (the federal regulations, which <br />implement the Act) requires Reclamation to consider effects to cultural resources within the Area of <br />Potential Effects (APE). The APE is defined as "the geographic area or areas within which an <br />undertakjng may directly or indirectly cause changes in the character or use of historic properties, if <br />any such properties exist". The APE includes the area~ of the Arkansas River between Pueblo <br />Reservoir and Twin Lakes and the pipeline from Pump Station #1 to the Pueblo West Water Treatment <br />Plant. <br /> <br />Many cultural resourCe inventories have been conducted in and around Pueblo Reservoir since the <br />1960's. The most extensive inventory was conducted by the University of Denver in 1965. Although <br />not considered adequate according to modern standarqs, this inventory did cover all Reclamation land <br />at the reservoir. Several more sites have beenrecordep since 1965 during small-scale inventories for <br />recreation- and transportation-related projects, and the 1998 safety of dams' project (Coutant, 1998; <br />Andrews, 1989; Weston and Roper, 1987; Bradley and Kenyon, 1984a; and Bradley and Kenyon, <br />1984b). <br /> <br />Almost all of the 130 sites recorded in or near Pueblo Reservoir are prehistoric Native American sites <br />spanning a period from about 5,000 years before present to just before European-American contact in <br />the area. Eleven of the sites were excavated or tested by the University of Denver in 1966. In addition <br />to the recorded sites, the community of Swallows and the historic Teller Ranch are known to have <br />existed in the pool area (Withers and Huffman, 1966; bison, Withers, and Ireland, 1968), The State <br />IDstoric Preservation Office (SHPO) has not been fodnally consulted regarding eligibility of these <br />sites for the National Register of IDstoric Places (Reclamation, 2000). ' <br /> <br />A cultural resource inventory of the proposed water pipeline alignment conducted by Tate and <br />Associate, Incorporated on July 31, 2001 (Mead, 2001) revealed seven sites near the proposed project <br />and no sites within the project APE. <br /> <br />18 <br />