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2002. Yet the recovering wetlands flourished with the reduction in the grazing. Most notable was the huge increase in the growth of the woody species in and adjacent to the stream channel. Without the cattle browsing on the cottonwoods and willows, even to a small extent, these plants began to show very significant gains in height. In a word, with the reduction of grazing impact everything in the rangeland and along the stream improved at a high rate. Unfortunately, the leafy spurge that infests this entire drainage and adjacent drainages also increased in vigor. But its increase was far less dramatic than the other rangeland, riparian, and wetland vegetation. There is currently no indication as to how long the cattle numbers will be reduced, but it is clear that the longer this continues the better off the entire vegetation assemblage will be. Hopefully, in the future, the grazing will be managed better and such severe overgrazing will not be allowed to occur. In the last section of this report some recommendations are provided that further address the need for more grazing management. Status of the Wetland Mitigation Sites The two wetland mitigation sites include a total of 10.04 acres of land that has been fenced to keep out cattle. These are referred to as the North Wetland Mitigation Enclosure and the South Wetland Mitigation Enclosure. The northern enclosure includes 4.48 acres and the southern enclosure includes 5.56 acres. Both span the stream channel. Within each of these areas the actual mitigation plan described in the permit was implemented. As much of the included land as possible was converted to wetland, but some land had to be reserved for the planting of the larger cottonwoods. As a rule, planting large cottonwoods in the actual wetlands is not wise as cottonwood tends to prefer slightly elevated land above the water table. The cottonwood and willow whips, however, were planted in lower elevation areas and along the edges of what was assumed would develop into well defined wetland. Unfortunately, the ability to predict exactly what will become fully developed wetland and what will not is an inexact science. Stream channels tend to vary considerably and sometimes over very short time spans and wetlands tend to be very sensitive to even small changes in the surface elevation. Therefore, all planting was done with a view toward using a best guess as to where the various plantings should be done. The herbaceous portion of the wetland development was very much left to Nature to implement. Maps of each of the enclosure areas are provided at the back of this report. The maps contain a legend that identifies the various color zones on the map. Following is a description of each of the zones. Principal Wetland: This includes all areas where wetland development is maximum. In this area the vegetation is the most dense (essentially 100% cover), water is near or even above the surface, and the species present are almost all obligate wetland species. In effect Wetlands and Wetland Mitigation DA Permit 198811488 August 2003 Page 9 of 23