PERMFILE42069 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

The flora and plant communities of the study site are characteristic of the Williams Fork Mountains. The flora consists of 91 species of vascular plants: 1 tree, • 13 shrubs, 55 forbs, 19 grasses, and 1 sedge (see Table 1-1). The various elements of this flora have interacted through time with local environmental factors to produce five distinct and recognizable plant communities. They include: aspen, oak, sagebrush-snowberry, chokecherry- snowberry and serviceberry-sagebrush. Figure J-1 (attached foldout map) graphically illustrates the distribution of these communities on the study site and adjacent areas, and the following Plate 1-1 provides a photo of each of these communities. The proposed mining (pit, overburden and topsoil storage areas) would affect approximately 30 acres of aspen, 176 acres of oak, 204 acres of sagebrush-snowberry, 41 acres of chokecherry-snowberry, and 23 acres of sage- brush-snowberry. The haul roads, maintenance facilities site, explosive storage area, and settling ponds would affect an additional 133 acres of wet meadow, sagebrush- snowberry, and oak. The vegetation at the study site was mapped and quantitatively described per plant community during the early fall of 1976. The results of this comprehensive quantitative analysis are contained in the "Baseline • Biological Inventory for the Proposed Hayden Gulch Mine." Following is a brief description of the major plant com- munities summarized from the quantitative field inventory and analyses.* 2.1 Aspen Community The aspen form small isolated communities up to 13 acres in size in the deep loam soils (Routt Series) of moist drainage channels on north facing slopes. Occasionally aspen occur mixed with oak and other shrubs in the gravelly clay loam soils (Delphill Series Complex) on the steep western slopes. These aspen form homogenous stands only at the bottom of the slopes in the deep colluvial soils. Considerable variation exists in the growth character of the aspen communities of the study area. Tree heights, *Complete reference citations are contained in the "Baseline Biological Inventory for the Proposed Hayden Gulch Mine, Routt County, Colorado." -2-