2016-01-14_REVISION - M1983194 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Additionally, the Paleontological Resources Protection Act (PRPA) was signed into law on March 30th, 2009, as part of the Omnibus Public Lands Act (OPLA) of 2009, Public Law 111-011. "P.L. 111-011, Title VI, Subtitle D on Paleontological Resources Preservation (OPLA-PRPA) requires the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to manage and protect paleontological resources on Federal land using scientific principles and expertise...The OPLA-PRPA reaffirms the authority for many of the policies the Federal land managing agencies already have in place for the management of paleontological resources…" Also, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Instruction Memorandum (IM) No. 2008-009 "transmits the classification system for paleontological resources on public lands. The classification system is based on the potential for the occurrence of significant paleontological resources in a geologic unit, and the associated risk for impacts to the resource based on Federal management actions…" LOCATION OF THE PROJECT AREA The inventoried survey areas are located in Rio Blanco County, Colorado, roughly 30 miles southwest of the town of Meeker, Colorado. They are within portions of T. 1 S., R. 98 W., Sections 15, 16, 21-28, 33-36; 6th Principal Meridian (Figure 1). ENV IRONMENT This section is subdivided into summaries of the geology, physiography, soils, biota, and climate. It also provides a discussion of how the environment may have affected prehistoric and historic occupation of the area. Geology and Soils The project area is in the Piceance Basin, part of the Uinta Basin section which is in turn part of the Colorado Plateau physiographic province (Hunt 1974). The Uinta Basin forms an embayment between the Middle and Southern Rocky Mountains; the deepest part of the structural bowl has an aggregate of about four miles of Mesozoic and Tertiary sediment overlying Paleozoic rock. The Tertiary units deposited in the basin rise more gently to the south to form the escarpments of the Roan Cliffs, but rise much more steeply in the north and east, adjacent to the Uinta Mountains and the White River Plateau. The project is located primarily on low, gentle ridges, with elevations that range from 6240 feet to about 6740 feet. The area is characterized by gentle slopes, and a dissected, dendritic drainage system. Erosion of the lacustrine deposits in the local topography has resulted in these low convex ridges cut by dendritic washes. These drainages flow north into Yellow Creek or south into Ryan Gulch. Ryan Gulch drains into Piceance Creek and both Yellow and Piceance Creeks are perennial tributaries of the White River. 2