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• irrigate 40 acres. Land ownership today is usually in 40-acre parcels or multiples thereof. Years <br />of operations and management have resulted in most of the arable land that can be reached by <br />irrigation to be put into one form of agricultural production or another. This includes the majority <br />of First Park and a large portion of Second Park. Irrigation of potential farm lands on Third Park, <br />located across Coal Canyon north of Second Park has not been carried out because of a lack of <br />a water delivery system. The extension of the Colorado Cooperative Ditch across Coal Canyon <br />and onto Third Park would be prohibitive at this time in terms of engineering, construction <br />requirements, and cost (Mrs. Tom Garvey, personal communication, June 1987). <br />The areas of deeper, more productive soils within the permit areas are used for hay production, <br />crops such as annual grains and corn silage, and irrigated pasture. Some of the irrigated hayland <br />and much of the irrigated pasture contain areas of shallow soils or rock ledges and outcrops at or <br />near the surface (see Tab 6, Geology and Tab 7, Soils). This places restrictions on management <br />and production. Lands within the permit area are used for pasture rental, hay sales, as a pasture <br />or hay base, and support facilities for livestock run on adjacent private and Federal ground during <br />the spring, summer, and fall, or as hobby or retirement properties. The latter are used to produce <br />some hay or pasture for the few livestock owned by these operators. Farm ground on the westem <br />portion of the permit area is used for production of grain or corn silage, some of which may be sold <br />as cash crops. Generally, these crops are fed back to livestock run by the operator. Cropland also <br />• occurs within the western portion of the permit area. One abandoned orchard occurs within the <br />permit area. Orchards established early after the establishment of Nucla, were used principally for <br />cash crop with a large portion of the production going to the mining districts around Telluride. By <br />the 1940s, the market demand was gone and the orchards were abandoned (James Johnson, <br />personal communication, May 1987). These orchards are no longer managed and only local <br />incidental use is made of them now. Some of these orchards may, at least seasonally, be grazed <br />along with adjacent irrigated pasture. Property ownership and vegetation and production <br />information for the permit area can be found in Section 2.03, (Legal, Financial, Compliance and <br />Related Information) and Section 2.04.10 (Vegetation Information), respectively. <br />Because of the proximity of the site to the town of Nucla, a small amount of residential use (outside <br />of the farmsteads) has occurred in the northeast and southeast portions of the permit area. Five <br />homesites occur in these areas and range from mobile homes to traditional permanently located <br />homes. Though residential would be one of the highest and best uses of the land, the present <br />status of the local economy most probably precludes any additional residential expansion in the <br />area. <br />There has been limited underground mining activity within the permit area. In addition to the <br />. reclaimed New Horizon 1 surface coal mine northwest of the mine area, three underground coal <br />(Revised 28JuIy06) 2.04.3-10 <br />