2018-01-03_PERMIT FILE - C1981010 (9)

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1.0 Introduction At the request of Mr. Forrest Luke, Environmental Manager for Trapper Mining Inc. (TMI), and permitting agent for the proposed Trapper Mine PR -7 Mine Expansion Area, baseline vegetation sampling was conducted during the summer of 2014 on an area of approximately 795.71 acres where the proposed mine disturbance vegetation types and corresponding new mine permit area occurs. This area is located adjacent to the eastern boundary of the existing Trapper Mine Permit area. This site is located approximately ten miles southeast of Craig, Moffat County, Colorado in portions of Sections 33, Township 6 North, Range 90 West and Sections 4, 8, and 9 of Township 5 North, Range 90 West. The proposed PR -7 Mine Expansion Area is located west of Moffat County Road # 33, which also is known as the Knez Divide Road. This vegetation monitoring effort was prepared in accordance with the baseline vegetation sampling requirements of the Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety (CDRMS) regulations found in Rule 2.04.10. Mr. Kent Crofts of IME, who has conducted numerous previous vegetation sampling efforts at the Trapper Mine, and numerous other mine sites in northwest Colorado during the past 37 years, directly supervised all field investigations, summarized the data, and wrote this report. Mr. Benito Felix Garcia assisted with the field sampling and data analysis. Mrs. Loraine Crofts served as the laboratory assistant, who weighed the plant samples and summarized the production data. AECOM Technical Services, Inc. (AECOM) compiled the final data from IME and completed vegetation text updates and formatting. 2.0 Methods 2.1 Plant Community Mapping 2.1.1 Vegetation Mapping Trapper permit Vegetation Map 48 was used as the basis for the vegetation mapping of the plant communities found within the PR -7 expansion area. However, in the 2014 vegetation mapping effort, a more detailed vegetation map was prepared (Map 48A). The boundaries of the vegetation types in the PR -7 Mine Expansion Area were delineated as required in Rule 2.04.10(1), which requires that plant communities be delineated based on visually dominant plant species. Three major plant community types were delineated according to this specification within the PR -7 Mine Expansion Area. These included the Mountain Shrub, Big Sagebrush, and Grassland vegetation types. In addition, a fourth smaller vegetation type was delineated in the fall of 2013, which consisted of a palustrine emergent wetland vegetation type. Wetland delineations were conducted using the protocol outlined in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wetlands Delineation Manual (Environmental Laboratory 1987) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regional Supplement to the Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation Manual. Arid West Region Version 2.0 (Supplement) (USACE 2008). Wetlands were identified in the field as areas having positive evidence of three environmental parameters: hydrophytic vegetation, hydric soils, and wetland hydrology. This formal wetland delineation was submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for a jurisdictional determination, which was approved following a formal field verification inspection. For purposes of this vegetation sampling effort, the wetland vegetation type was combined with the Grassland Vegetation Type, because herbaceous grass -like species dominated each community. Maps, in both electronic and paper format, of the PR -7 Mine Expansion Area were supplied by TMI. This vegetation mapping was initially prepared primarily using high resolution aerial photographs taken in the