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Inspection Report Narrative October 7, 1998 Canadian Strip Mine, C-81-026 Phase III Bond Release Inspection Weather: sunny; initially cold but warming significantly. Inspection commenced at 9:00 am at the mine site. Participating were Paul Gayer and Jerry Koblitz, representing the operator; Sandy Brown of Colo DMG; the landowner of the North end of the mine site, Mr. Dale Moore; and Randy Pair, OSM. No BLM staff were present; but I spoke on the phone with Jim Perry, and BLM's only concern was with the re-establishment of fences in accordance with lease requirements. The group walked essentially the whole disturbed area counter- clockwise starting at the county road. Significant observations follow. Revegetation: revegetation is generally very good. Perennial grasses (mostly bunch grasses) are highly dominant. Only a few weedy areas exist, mostly in small areas that have undergone erosion repairs. Most of the sagebrush stems are small, 1 foot or so in height. Jerry Koblitz reported that there had been some interseeding of additional sagebrush seed via rangeland drill in 1991. We noted that the erosion repair areas denoted on the "Annual Maintenance^ map are not to scale; i.e., they indicate the location of repair areas, but are mapped as much larger than the actual repair. Most of the indicated repair areas could not be identified by eye. The access road used during reclamation, which ran generally from the county road at the SW corner of the disturbed area to Pond 1, was reclaimed and planted. However, the public (i.e., hunters) continued to drive on the reclaimed road surface, producing a ^de facto" two-track road; there is no vegetation in the tracks and reduced vegetation in the center. However, this road was not excluded from revegetation sampling, so the revegetation data includes this fairly bare linear area. Mr. Moore stated that he would like to use this de facto two- track for access to his land, and would even like a gate in the fence that is to be re-established across this roadway. I subsequently spoke by phone with Jim Perry of BLM, and he stated that BLM would have no objection to this proposal. wildlife: numerous elk and antelope tracks and pellet groups were observed throughout the disturbed area. Reference area: at the close of the inspection (12:15 pm), the group traveled to the reference area that was used to establish ~a~3d~y