PERMFILE65999 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

7 Rl and R2 Portals: The Rl and R2 portals are located neaz the head of Cow Canyon, across • the canyon from one another. A single 40-acre block was inventoried covering both locations. An additional irregulaz block of about 17 acres was inventoried to the north to cover the proposed fill stockpile area. RI portal in late 1997; R2 portal later. Haul Road to the Rl and R2 Portals: A haul road to the Rl and R2 portals will begin along the P3 haul road in Cow Canyon and extend to the portal locations. A short portion of the end of the road at the Rl/R2 portal location was included within the block survey for those portals and their associated fill stockpile area. The remainder, covering approxi- mately 90 acres, was surveyed as a.400-foot-wide corridor. Late 1997. Methods Inventory The cultural resource inventory of proposed mine development aeeas and facilities locations proceeded using standard pedestrian transects for the most part. There are areas, however, where standard survey techniques were neither usable nor necessary. For block survey locations, including the surface mine area and the 40-acre survey pazcels, pedestrian transects were walked at approximate 25 to 30 meter intervals. For the haul roads, four transects were walked at 30 meter intervals to cover a 400 foot wide corridor. In some aeeas, terrain and vegetation necessitated some modification to these methods. Moderately steep slopes and aeeas of thick oak brush were covered at a wider interval, designed to allow identification of ridge • lines, cliff bands, benches and open areas, which were then the focus of more intensive inventory. Exceptionally steep slopes (>20-25°) and areas with impenetrable oak brush were not inventoried, although vantage points were sought out that allowed these aeeas to be checked for settings where cultural resources were expected to be more likely, such as ridge lines, benches, points, cliff bands, and open aeeas. These types of topographic features were then inspected more closely. Surface visibility varied greatly over the project azea. In most places, it was more than adequate for discovery of surface materials, ranging from about 50% to 100% visibility. Areas with dense oak brush or dense conifers (pinon and/or ponderosa) lacked surface visibility because of leaf and needle duff, but tended to be very localized or confined to steep, north-facing slopes. The greatest visibility problem occurs in open grassy meadows and in the valley floors, especially in Lorencito Canyon. These areas also tend to be the places where there is Holocene deposition. Grass cover is complete, and surface visibility is usually limited to areas that have been disturbed, such as cutbanks, road cuts, cattle wallows, and small eroding headcuts on sloping surfaces. Visibility in Cow Canyon was not as bad because the grass was not as dense and many of the larger meadows have been recently plowed. In general, visibility in November was better than in August. Special attention was paid to finding and examining aeeas where surface and subsurface sediments were exposed in areas where visibility was compromised, such as cutbanks, rodent backdirt piles, the tracks of two-track roads or bladed aeeas along roads, road cuts, eroding areas, and cattle and game trails. By these means, the visibility problems were overcome in all areas except on the floor of Lorencito Canyon (see discussion in Part III, below, about alternative . means of site discovery).