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LORENCITO CANYON MINE VEGETATION TECHNICAL REPORT SECTION 1 -INTRODUCTION Lorencito Coal Company is proposing a coal mine at the Lorencito Canyon Mine site west of Trinidad, Colorado. The site lies just east of the small town of Weston. The objectives of the vegetation study for the Lorencito Canyon Mine were to quantitatively describe the vegetation that occurs within the permit area, provide data to be used in formulating a revegetation plan for the disturbed areas, and establish reference areas that are representative of the communities that will be affected by surface disturbance. This information is required by Rule 2.04.10 of the Regulations of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board. SECTION 2 -METHODOLOGY Quantitative community surveys were designed to provide a basis for statistically assessing community attributes in disturbance and reference areas. Qualitative preliminary vegetation community mapping was ground-truthed in early May 1996. Quantitative baseline vegetation information data was collected by Greystone biologists during July of 1996 in disturbance and reference areas. Mapping of the vegetation community types was conducted. Quantitative • measurements included cover, shrub and tree density, species diversity, and production. Baseline data was collected from each community type within the proposed disturbance areas and their respective reference areas. Special concern species surveys were also conducted. Disturbed areas were defined as those areas that would be affected by the proposed mining project. Initially, disturbance areas were identified as the surface mine, Rl/R2 Portals, R3/R4 Portals, Pl/P2 Portals, and P3 Portal. Reference areas were defined as those areas similar to the disturbed areas but would not be affected by the proposed mining project. Extended reference areas were identified from the preliminary mapping of vegetation communities. Extended references were located throughout the permit area (outside of any proposed disturbance area) and not in one particular location. Since other areas within the permit area may be disturbed in the future, this scheme created no limits to further development of the property. Mapping A vegetation map delineating the various plant communities was prepared for the entire permit area at a scale of 1:1,000. These communities included grassland, coniferous forest, pinyon/juniper woodland, oak pinyon pine, mountain shrub, riparian woodland, and hay meadow. Aerial photographs were used to initially map vegetation communities. Ground-frothing was • conducted to confirm and refine vegetation community mapping Veg .775/December 9, 1996 1