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• Surface disturbance must be a major concern. Obviously, the <br />immediate area of the mine portal, wash facility, and haul road <br />xill be disturbed due to immediate construction and oerpation of <br />the mine, but since the total acreage involved is small and <br />there is none in critical habitat, the impact will be minimized. <br />The disposal area presents different problems. Although only 10 <br />to 15 acres will be disturbed at a time, the impact of continued <br />deposition of refuse over an increasing and accumulating number <br />of acres will destroy, at least for a while, the surface <br />vegetative communities. Efforts should be made to reclaim or <br />restore the disturbed area as quickly as possible. <br />• Since the disposal site is proposed for construction and <br />operation in prime white-tailed prairie dog, Cynomys leucurus, <br />and burrowing oxl habitat, concern must be generated for the <br />stability of the populations. The area of disturbance is on the <br />southern extremity of the prairie dog range in Rio Blanco <br />County, Colorado and considerable habitat and populations exist <br />in Moffat County to the north. Therefore, the overall impact on <br />the stability of prairie dog populations should be minimal. <br />Similar impacts xill be evidenced for burrowing owls. <br />Surface disturbance associated with certain mining operations <br />aad techniques can be extremely detrimental to terrestrial <br /> vertebrates, but the long-wall mining technique minimizes much <br />• of the impact. Since no overburden is removed with long-wall <br />II.H-1 ¢0 <br />