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did not include an inventory of the loadout or railroad spur. The Colorado D iv iaion of Wildlife was consulted. (Please see Volume IV, Exhibit H and Volume V, Exhibit M of Permit C-80-004) According to HGTI's application, the following habitat types exist within the proposed permit area (which is basically identical with the existing permit area for the loadout portion of C-60-004): Habitat Tvpe Acreage Saline/Alkaline Wet Meadow 5.4 Saline/Alkaline Shrublanda 37.1 Aquatic Areas ~ 1.2 Disturbed Areas 131.6 Descriptions of the aquatic areas of Dry Creek and its associated wetlands within and adjacent to the permit area, as stated in HGTI'e application, are given below. Acuatic Areas Aquatic habitat is limited to the surface area of ponds and the Dry creek stream channel. Dry Creek is characterized as intermittent within the reach which bisects the permit area. For mapping purposes, wet portions of Dry Creek are included within the saline/alkaline wet meadow map unit (Exhibit 11-1). The ponds contain water during some portion of most years, as evidenced by the presence of aquatic macrophytes and emergente within and eurroundinq the ponds. Saline/Alkaline Wet Meadow This habitat occurs ae a narrow stringer along the banks of Dry Creek and surrounding two existing sediment ponds (Exhibit 11-1). It corresponds to the alkaline meadow vegetation community described in Tab 10. The dominant soil is Spicerton variant (0-5 percent slopes), which typically occurs on alluvial fans and stream bottoms (see Tab 9). The range site classification within which the habitat falls is Claypan. As part of the current application process, visual reconnaissances of the loadout site were conducted by Peabody Western Coal Company on October 7th and 23rd, 1992. During this reconnaissance, approximately 30 deer, 1 red fox and numerous northern pocket gopher diggings were sighted. In addition, HGTI incorporated information from the Colorado Mammal Distribution Latilong Study (Bissell and Dillon, 1992), as well as, baseline studies of big game and aquatic species, conducted for permit C-82-057, into the permit application. (Peabody Western Coal Company made a study of benthic and periphyton species as a part of its application for permit C-82-057 for the Seneca II-W Mine. One site was located in Dry Creek approximately 5.0 miles upstream of the proposed Loadout permit area. Please see Volume 1, Tab 11 of HGTI Permit Application C-92-81). Wetlands have not been differentiated according to the "Classification of wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States".