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EXHIBIT J <br />Vegetation Information <br />Vegetation information was gathered from the Soil Survey of Weld County, Colorado, Northern <br />Part (United States Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service), and vascular Plant <br />Species of the Pawnee National Grasslands (United States Department of Agriculture, Forest <br />Service, General Technical Report RMRS- GTR -17). <br />Disturbance to vegetation within the proposed permit area is limited to previous grazing by the <br />owner's bison and cattle herds. Upon completion of mining activities, reclamation will seed <br />disturbed areas with a mixture of native grass species. <br />The vegetation in northeastern Colorado is generally classified as a shortgrass prairie ecoregion. <br />The shortgrass prairie has traditionally been separated from other grassland in the Great Plains <br />area on the basis of the relative height of the dominant grasses. This view is no longer held by <br />ecologists. Besides the low rainfall and dominance of short grasses, one of the better means to <br />distinguish between the shortgrass and the midgrass or tall grass prairies is that in the shortgrass <br />region all of the available soil moisture is transpired before the end of the growing season. In <br />general, less than 50 percent of the ground in shortgrass regions is covered by vegetation. This is <br />an important aspect of the proposed permit area for maximizing and determining reclamation <br />success. <br />Most of the uplands are sparsely covered with prairie grasses such as Blue Grama, Buffalo <br />Grass, Western Wheatgrass, and Prairie Sandreed. The height of some grasses may reach <br />12 inches during periods of maximum growth, but most stands of grass do not reach that height. <br />Within the Lone Tree Creek drainage, a few patches of trees dot the drainage bottom, including <br />cottonwoods and shrubs in deeper, more protected areas of the drainage. Along the creek <br />bottom, low growing sedges and rushes grow intermixed with thicker growth of Blue Grama <br />grass. <br />Connell Carr Pit <br />DR_I!S 112 Permit Application Page 22 <br />