2018-01-03_PERMIT FILE - C1981010A (12)

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• As snow depths accumulate in late February and March, deer usage increases on the south facing slopes. Aerial surveys of these areas do not effectively illustrate this fact. This may be due to the roughness of the terrain, pin- yon -juniper vegetation type, the low visibility of deer and the short critical use period of this area by mule deer. A number of successive years of inten- sive utilization by livestock and game on the south facing slopes of the Wil- liam Fork Mountains could damage browse and affect the future capability of the area to support wintering animals. It is likely that the excellent big game forage on the north slope where the proposed mine plan area is, provides infrequent, but possibly important, peri- ods of relief to the browse on the south slopes during mild winters. Occa- sional mild winters permit deer to browse the north facing slopes of the mine plan area, thereby allowing rejuvenation of vegetation on the south facing slopes. Prior to heavy snows each winter and soon after major thaws, deer use on the north facing slopes increases, reducing pressure on the south facing • slopes of the Williams Fork Mountains. • This natural "rest -rotation system" of the south facing slope range is depen- dent upon availability of browse on the north slope where the mine plan area is located. Though mining will temporarily remove portions of the browse on the north slope, not all of this north slope will be disturbed at one time and prompt revegetation as discussed in Section 3.6, including seeding of native species, shrub reestablishment, and "off site" mitigation (Section 4.6) will alleviate any reduction of available browse for wintering deer. Such mitiga- tion will involve various portions of rangeland which will be managed by adjusting domestic livestock use and manipulated to increase quantity and qua- lity of the available forage. The mitigation measures (Section 4.6) and revegetation plan are designed to maintain long term stability and health of the deer herds through browse improvement and prompt revegetation techniques. 2-152