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• iii iiiiiiiiiiiu iii STATE OF COLORADO Bill Owens, Governor DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES DIVISION OF WILDLIFE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER Russell George, Director 6060 Broadway Denver, Colorado 80216 Telephone: (303) 297-1192 October 6, 2000 Cazl Mount Division of Minerals & Geology 1313 Sherman Street Room 215 Denver, CO 80203 For H~ildlife- ForPeople Re: CAMAS Colorado, Inc., dba Aggregate Industries -- West Coast Region, Inc., E 8ih Street Operation, File No. M-2000-082 Dear Mr. Mount: The following constitute the comments of the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Mike Sherman (Field Habitat Biologist) and Lary Rogstad (District Wildlife Manager) have both reviewed this Reclamation Permit Application Consideration and made a field visit to the proposed mine site on October 5, 2000. In addition, Larry Rogstad was already familiar with this area from doing hunter contacts for may years on the feedlot and the adjacent Western Sugar site. We prefer the mining plan and accompanying reclamation plan that will allow the Ogilvy Ditch to remain in-place. This ditch currently contains some riparian vegetation and provides habitat for a variety of species including amphibians, song birds, waterfowl, and small mammals. By allowing this ditch to remain post-mining would increase to overall wildlife diversity on this site, especially if water is run through the ditch in the winter season. In addition, allowing for aright-of--way to remain in place on both sides of the ditch will provide for habitat for a variety of terrestrial wildlife species. We highly recommend that as few existing trees and shrubs as possible be removed from this site, especially any mature cottonwood tree stands along the Poudre River corridor. If there is any net loss of woody vegetation (trees and shrubs), we recommend the applicant replace those individuals that are lost as a result of construction or mining on a one for one basis. For example, if you cut down 20 trees during the mining, operation, we recommend that you replant 20 trees as part of the reclamation plan. We recommend [hat lost trees be replaced with small trees (typically 1 foot to 6 foot tall which are readily available from commercial nurseries and the Colorado State Forest Service nursery). Small trees have a much better chance of getting established and surviving, and they will eventually become big trees. Regarding the proposed post-mining ponds, these will provide new habitat for a variety of waterfowl, shorebirds, herons, amphibians and fish species. We recommend the pond be constructed to have DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, Greg E. Walther, Executive Director WILDLIFE COMMISSION, Bernard L. Black, Jr., Chairman Rick Enstrom, Vice-Chairman • Philip James, Secretary Members, Tom Burke • Mark Le Valley • Marianna Raftopoulos • Robert Shoemaker • Olive Valdez Ex-Officio Members, Greg E. Walther and Don Ament