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This biome supports a variety of wildlife species. Mule deer, elk, coyote, and black <br />bear are locally common as are jack rabbits, cottontail rabbits, and various other rodents. <br />Mountain lion, bobcat, fox, beaver, skunk, badger, and weasel are also area inhabitants. <br />Observed bird species include the pinyon jay, raven, red-shafted flicker, red-tailed hawk, <br />golden eagle, bald eagle, and various other raptors. <br />4.0 SUMMARY OF FILES SEARCH AND LITERATURE OVERVIEW <br />A files search for known cultural resources in the project areas were made online at <br />the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (COMPASS) website, and through the <br />BLM-WRFO on 10 April 2023. Appendix A contains lists of previous projects and cultural <br />resources within one mile of the project area. <br />North America’s first human explorers arrived near the close of the Pleistocene <br />traveling by passage along Beringia, the continental land bridge between what is now <br />Siberia and Alaska. The latest research shows that humans have been living in North <br />America and specifically in the Tularosa Basin of New Mexico for at least 23,000 years – <br />evidenced by dated human footprints (NPS 2022). Craniometric data has indicated that the <br />earliest ancestors of the Native Americans were diverse in origin and identified as <br />belonging to various populations found in Asia and along the Pacific Rim. The numbers of <br />these colonists were apparently small because evidence of the first incursions is scant. <br />However, the fact that they rapidly spread across the continents of North and South America <br />is found in excavations at Meadowcroft Rockshelter Pennsylvania (Adovasio et al. 1990) <br />and at Monte Verde in Chile (Dillehay 1984), sites which date to about 18,000 and 14,000 <br />years ago respectively. Consensus has emerged that the dating of Monte Verde is valid; <br />however, the dating of Meadowcroft continues to be the subject of debate (Haynes 1980, <br />1991). Such finds indicate a pre-Clovis colonization of the Americas. <br />Local and regional archaeological studies suggest nearly continuous human <br />occupation of northwest Colorado for the past 13,000 years. Manifestations of the <br />Paleoindian Era, big-game hunting peoples (ca. 11,500 - 6400 BC); the Archaic Era <br />hunter/gatherer groups (ca. 6500 - 400 BC); the Formative Era horticulturalist/forager <br />cultures (ca. 400 BC- AD 1300); the Protohistoric Era [Late Prehistoric] pre-horse <br />hunter/gatherers (Early Numic [Ute, Shoshone, Comanche], ca. AD 1300 - AD 1650) and <br />historic horse-riding nomads (Late Numic, ca. AD 1650 - AD 1881) have been documented. <br />In-depth overviews of the prehistory of the region are provided in a document published by <br />the Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists entitled Colorado Prehistory: A <br />Context for the Northern Colorado River Basin (Reed and Metcalf 1999), and in Synthesis <br />of Archaeological Data Compiled for the Piceance Basin Expansion [WIC], Rockies <br />Express Pipeline [REX], and Uinta Basin Lateral [UBL] Projects Volume 2: Moffat and Rio <br />Blanco Counties, Colorado, and Sweetwater County, Wyoming (Reed and Metcalf, ed. <br />2009). <br />Historic records suggest occupation or use by EuroAmerican trappers, settlers, <br />4