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-~~~~ III IIIIIIIIIIIII Illl <br />999 <br />3.7 Fish and Wildlife Resource Information <br />A study of the fish and wildlife resources in the mine permit and <br />surrounding areas has been conducted. The objectives of this study <br />were to: <br />1. Describe the wildlife habitats of the area; <br />2. Discuss seasonal wildlife uses of the area, concentrating <br />on special interest species life cycles; and, <br />3. Discuss the general effect of the project on wildlife and <br />habitat use of the area. <br />This section of northwest Colorado has been a coal mining area <br />since the late 1800's. Some initial descriptions of the wildlife <br />and their habitat come from the Dominguez-ESCalante Expedition of <br />1776. After 1800, fur trappers moved into some areas of northwest <br />• Colorado and continued trapping for forty years until the fur- <br />bearing wildlife populations collapsed (Athearn, 1977). The first <br />extensive zoological surveys in the area did not occur until 1905, <br />when Cary (1911) surveyed mammals and in 1909 when Felger (1910) <br />surveyed birds. In terms of comprehensive wildlife studies, little <br />was accomplished until recent oil shale and coal mining activity <br />triggered new interest in the biological makeup of this section of <br />Colorado. Planning and development of energy resources has <br />provided a wealth of information about fish and wildlife resources <br />from a number of private enterprises and government agencies. As <br />a result, it was determined early in the scoping of this project <br />that sufficient information was already available to prepare an <br />analysis which would fulfill the objectives stated above. <br />Principal sources of data utilized in this analysis have been the <br />Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) offices in Grand Junction and <br />Denver, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) offices in Grand <br />• Junction and Salt Lake City, and the Bureau of Land Management <br />(BLM) offices in Glenwood Springs. These sources have provided <br />NCEC - Coal Ridge #1 3-75 ABC/1145/900301 <br />