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• CMLRH -Exhibit H <br />Wildlife laformatioa <br />Page 7 <br />permit azea, big game concerns focus primarily on mule deer because of the relative importance <br />of the permit area to this species as a broad, east-west movement corridor that presently extends <br />along the length of the valley. Important winter ranges on Rabbit Mountain are accessed by <br />deer moving east across Dowe Flats in the fall. This pattern is reversed in spring as some deer <br />migrate west to higher elevation summer ranges. <br />Winter range values of Dowe Flats are marginal because native vegetation is heavily utilized by <br />cattle and prairie dogs, leaving little standing biomass during winter, and because agricultural <br />crops are generally fallow for the winter. Mule deer, which use portions of Dowe Flats during <br />winter, take pressure off the heavily utilized Rabbit Mountain winter range. The intensity of <br />utilization on Rabbit Mountain has been exacerbated in recent years by an increasing deer <br />population and the CDOW's difficulty in managing this herd because the area and surrounding <br />lands are closed to all hunting or to public hunting. <br />The proposed mining will have little adverse effect on the local deer herd. Although deer would <br />be locally restricted from active pits and from areas awaiting reclamation, local and seasonal <br />• movements across Dowe Flats would continue. Broad corridors north and south of active <br />mining and within the existing corridor would be more than adequate to accommodate continued <br />movements (Exhibit F -Reclamation Plan Map). <br />The only obstacles that will restrict east-west deer movements from portions of their present <br />corridor would be unreduced highwalls and ponds/]akes. However, neither of these features <br />would adversely affect deer movements, because configuration of reclaimed landforms in these <br />areas have been specifically designed to facilitate east-west movements (Exhibit F -Reclamation <br />Plan Map). Valleys, buffered from the surrounding area by ridges, and vegetated with valuable <br />big game foraging and cover species, should allow for leisurely, undisturbed residency as well <br />as movements. The present, existing corridors also extend north and south of the permit area <br />so it would not be necessary to accommodate all future movements within the permit azea ~If , <br />fencine is constotcted to restrict deer from reclaimed areas until after the veeetation .___. ~~vts"~" <br />withstand biq Qame ora~inn P~cr_.vpct corridors would be provided between large fenced ~~~`^"Q <br />reclaimed r ac to allow for continued movem~t~ <br />~b~- <br />Mining activity is not expected to increase traffic volumes on County Road 47, and no increase ~ <br />is expected in big game highway mortalities along the relocated Coun 47 or Highway f ,~ <br />• 66. Haul truck activity between the mine and plant would be 5 mph or less eeds~-at which ~~~9s <br />~" ~ <br />