2016-05-19_PERMIT FILE - C1982056A (6)

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Park has been confirmed by the District Conservationist of the USDA, Soil Conservation Service as presented in Exhibit 5, Pasture Management Practices in the Twentymile Park Area. • Records and historical aerial photography, maintained by the USDA, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, of current and previous landowner in Twentymile Park, were compared with recent records and imagery to determine the historic land use patterns within the proposed permit area. According to these sources, no evidence was found indicating significant land use changes within the five years preceding mining. Croplands Within the permit area, historically cropland was the predominant pre - mining land use. Management units of croplands were highly variable in size ranging from small units of 40 to 80 acres to large units which may occupy hundreds of acres. Within each management unit several acres could be lost to non - tillable ground, e.g., small drainage bottoms or steep slopes. However, these areas were necessarily included under this land use in -as -much as they were encompassed within the historic management unit boundaries, which are often delineated by fencing. Cropland was divided into two management practices. One was the harvest of cereal grains, mainly wheat, and the other was hay production. Cereal grain crop rotation practices within both Twentymile Park and Routt County usually rotate between winter wheat and summer fallow. However, when barley was included, the crop rotation was winter wheat - barely- summer fallow. As a result of this mixture of rotations, approximately 45 percent of the cereal grain cropland acreage was planted to winter wheat, another 45 percent was fallow, and the remaining 10 percent was planted to barley at any given time. Cropland production of hay was often on dryland sites which were often originally cultivated for wheat. Hay land was managed for hay which provides feed for livestock during the winter months when pastures were covered with deep snow. isLivestock were not allowed to graze the hay land in the spring in order to maximize hay production. In the fall, after harvesting, livestock were sometimes allowed to graze the hay stubble. Hay fields were planted to various mixtures of grasses and legumes. On drier sites, smooth brome and alfalfa were commonly planted, while on more moist sites, timothy and orchardgrass were generally added to the mix. • Table 1, Routt County Historical Cropland Statistics, presents crop yields for Routt County for winter wheat and hay for the period 2004 -2008. Dryland wheat crops have averaged 24.7 bushels per acre over this period, and have ranged from 22.5 to 26.5 bushels per acre. The production of hay, both alfalfa and all other hays, has averaged 1.7 tons per acre over this period and ranged from 1.1 to 2.0 tons per acre. It should be noted that unlike small grain production, much of the production hay crop comes from irrigated lands. Within the Permit Area historic cereal grain crop production is not significantly different from county averages. Table 2, Typical Grain Crop Production Within and Near Twentymile Park, identifies historic production figures for four ranches within or near the permit boundary. Historic wheat production figures averaged 26.2, 19.4 and 16.6 bushels per acre for three of the ranches and 32.4 and 36.8 bushels per acre of barley for two of the ranches. There has been an overall reduction in cereal grain production for all areas, with most agricultural lands being utilized for livestock grazing or hay cropping in recent years. The USDA, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service does not maintain production figures for haylands. Since the initial permitting action, the land use has changed in regards to croplands. At the time of Permit Revision No. 99 -05, cropland was no longer the dominant land use within the Permit Area. Areas previously utilized as croplands, i.e. for small grain production, were converted to pastureland. The remaining cropland is all used in the production of hay, although this is limited in size. MR10 -251 2.04 -3 01/07/11