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• diverse, consisting primarily of mountain snowberry and some grasses in addition to the dominant big sagebrush. However, The presence of a sagebrush community on the mine complex adds diversity to the entire ores. Unreclaimed - Pre-law mine spoils, approximately 30 years old, occur on West Ridge. Although the spoils occur on a 10 percent north-facing slope, the topography is much more complex on a smaller scale. It consists of narrow gullies, steep slopes, and flat-topped hills of overburden. Native vegetation has been quite successful in invading these disturbed oreas. Woter infiltrating into the spoils seeps out along the contact with underlying rock. Aspens have colonized these moist areas in gullies and invaded some of the steep slopes. Several other species of shrubs occur in these aspen pockets. Other areas are covered by grass, some of which is the result of aerial seeding from 1965 to 1968. Sagebrush also occurs in a few small patches. In general, The varied topography has created a much more diverse plant and animal community than presently occurs on the more recently regraded and revegetated spoils to the north. Reclaimed grass - The reclaimed grass habitat north of East Ridge is a large expanse which was mined, regraded to relatively smooth contours, and • replanted with grass. The area where the wildlife transect was located is a non- topsoiled area that was seeded in 1976. An additional trap grid was located in ~~ Topsoiled area seeded in 1978. The reclaimed area slopes at about 10 To 15 percent towards the west into Trout Creek. The most noticeable characteristic of the topography is its uniformity. There are no significant depressions or ridges on the area. Vegetation consists almost exclusively of planted grasses. Recently, large dead aspen trees were installed in this area to serve as roosts for raptors. Nesting boxes have been installed on some of these perches, however, these were erected too late in the spring of 1980 to evaluate their effectiveness. Cultivated fields - Cultivated fields within the study area were primarily oats, barley and wheat. Only oat and barley fields are present within one mile of the permit area. Pasture - These fields occur commonly along Trout Creek and other areas near to the permit area. These fields are used for both grazing and hay production purposes. 2.7.2.1 Birds • This account is divided into two parts: ahabitat-by-habitat description of bird 2.7 -5