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1► ERC Fairmeadows Site <br /> Aquatic Resource Delineation Report <br /> 4.0 EXISTING CONDITIONS <br /> 4.1 LANDSCAPE SETTING <br /> The survey area is situated within the Great Plains ecoregion (Bailey 1976) at an approximate elevation of 4,630 <br /> feet above mean sea level(AMSL).The survey area is comprised mainly of an agricultural field,previously disturbed <br /> ruderal herbaceous uplands,and home sites in the northern portion of the survey area.The vicinity of the survey <br /> area is comprised of agricultural land to the north,west,and east,and industrial development to the south.A dirt <br /> road follows the western, northern, and eastern boundary of the agricultural field-and leads to the home sites in <br /> the northern portion of the survey area. The landscape within the survey area is predominantly characterized as <br /> the Ruderal Smooth Brome Grassland and Cropland Fallow Field ecological systems (NatureServe 2022). The <br /> Ruderal Crested Wheatgrass Grassland occurs in a wide variety of human-disturbed habitats, including highway <br /> rights-of-way, jeep trails, etc. The type is also widely planted for revegetating disturbed land, pasture and hay <br /> fields, and has escaped into a variety of habitats, including prairie, riparian grasslands, and mesic mountain <br /> meadows (NatureServe 2022). The Cropland Fallow Field community is broadly characterized as agricultural and <br /> developed vegetation. Agricultural vegetation includes a wide variety of growth forms, often with distinctive <br /> cultural forms(e.g.,orchards,vineyards,row crops,rice paddies)or structure(e.g.,linear spacing, regular mowing, <br /> plowing), often to facilitate harvesting. "Agro-mesomorphic"tree,shrub,and herb growth forms are most typical. <br /> There is typically regular human management,such as plowing, mowing,or pruning that determines the structure <br /> and growth forms that are present. (NatureServe 2022). <br /> 4.2 AQUATIC RESOURCES <br /> No aquatic resources were delineated by ERC within the survey area. Six wetland determination data points were <br /> taken within the survey area to verify the lack of any aquatic resource habitat.A small area within a depression in <br /> the northwestern portion of the survey area contained a dominance of hydrophytic vegetation (reed canarygrass <br /> (Pholaris arundinacea)) but lacked indicators for hydrology or hydric soils (data point DP-U6 in Appendices A and <br /> B).The USDA Web-Soil Survey mapping identifies the soils within the survey area as Aquolls and Aquents gravelly <br /> substratum, Ellicott-Ellicott sandy-skeletal complex, Dacono clay loam, and Ustic Torriorthents moderately steep <br /> (NRCS 2022). Of the mapped soils, Aquolls and Aquents gravelly substratum is listed as hydric soils on the USDA <br /> NRCS Soil Data Access Hydric Soils List (NRCS 2022). Refer to Table 2 for a list of vegetation identified within the <br /> survey area (Lichvar et al. 2016). The Aquatic Resource Delineation Map is provided as Appendix A. Wetland <br /> Determination data sheets are provided in Appendix B. <br /> 5 <br />