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native vegetation types and wildlife habitat include the upland sagebrush, pinyon juniper, and <br />areas of riparian vegetation associated with Tuttle Draw and several small tributaries. It is <br />probable that irrigation tailwater has created or significantly enhanced areas of riparian <br />vegetation. <br />3.0 Historic and Existing Land Use on the Permit Area <br />The original permit area consisted of lands north of Tuttle Draw mined by predecessor <br />companies from 1958 to 1983. This original area, as modified by reductions due to final bond <br />releases, is now known as NH1 portion of the current permit. In the early 1980's, one of the <br />predecessor companies (Peabody) permitted, but did not mine an area south of Tuttle Draw and <br />west of the Town of Nucla. This area, labeled Nucla East by Peabody, is now known as New <br />Horizon 2 (NH2) by ERMR. The historic land use on the principal (NH2) area has been mostly <br />irrigated pasture and native rangeland. Existing use for NH2 is irrigated fields (mostly irrigated <br />pastureland), abandoned irrigated fields, native rangeland, mining disturbances, mine -related <br />activities, and reclamation. In most cases, pre -mine irrigation methods utilized flooding the land <br />using gravity. Sideroll irrigation, which is more efficient, was generally not used. <br />The much smaller NH area is the remaining parcel of land from pre-ERMR mining that has not <br />yet been granted a full bond release. This mine permit area and surrounding released land, prior <br />to 1958 when mining activities were begun by the Edna Coal Company, was fairly well split <br />between irrigated agricultural land and native rangeland/wildlife habitat. Irrigated agricultural <br />land is meant to encompass irrigated pasture, cropland and hayland. These are differentiated by <br />the amount of alfalfa in the fields as well as the intensity of the management of the irrigation. By <br />the time Peabody purchased the Navajo/Nucla Mine in 1963, nearly all irrigated lands south of <br />the east -west county road had been abandoned and approximately one quarter of the present <br />permit area was affected by mining activities. In May 1983, Surface Mine Permit No. C-008-81 <br />was approved for the Nucla Mine (Original NH 1). At that time, approximately two-thirds of the <br />original permit area was affected by mining activities and all irrigated lands south of the county <br />bypass road and west of the north -south county road had been abandoned. The Nucla Mine <br />(composed of the Nucla and Nucla East areas) was purchased by ERMR in 1992. The name was <br />changed to the New Horizon Mine (with New Horizon 1 and New Horizon 2 areas <br />corresponding to the Nucla and Nucla East areas respectively). Existing land use on the NH 1 <br />mine permit area is predominated by irrigated pasture, native rangeland and reclamation of old <br />coal mine areas. <br />It has been a normal practice for farmers to historically move water from one field to another <br />within their property or sell water to other people in the area to allow them to irrigate another <br />field for some time interval. Map 2.04.3 Pre -Mine Land Use shows the uses recorded by <br />Peabody for the permit area south of BB Road and east of 2700 Road. This was the original <br />August 2018 (TR -85) 2.04.3-3 <br />