2007-08-10_REVISION - M2001107 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

6.4.8 Exhibit H -Wildlife Information Wildlife Assessment - NCCI Pit #1 Extension Site Description Savage and Savage conducted a wildlife assessment for the Northern Colorado Constructors, Inc. Pit #1 extension on June 6, 2006. The extension site contains approximately 70 acres located within a portion of the NE'/4 of Section 24 in Township 2 North, Range 67 West of the 6's Prime Meridian, Weld County, Colorado. The property is bounded on the north by a fence line, east by a segment of an old railroad grade and a fence line, south by a fence line, and west by a fence line. The project site is depicted on the attached general location map. The site was accessed via an existing road that enters the property from Weld County Road 25 onto the southeast corner of the site. The weather during our site investigation was hot and dry with the temperature around 95°F. The average elevation of the site is 4860 feet and the property is essentially flat. The South Platte River is a perennial drainage that is located approximately one-half mile east of the site. Little Dry Creek skirts the west boundary of the site and flows across the northwest corner of the project site. The dominant soils on the site are aquolls and aquents and Bankard sandy loam (USDA, 1980). ` ~ The site is a mix of dry uplands with some shallow wetlands created by prior excavation of aggregate material. The uplands are dominated by pasture grass and ruderal species. The wetland vegetation communities can be broadly categorized as surface water drainage fringe along Little Dry Creek that is dominated by reed canarygrass (Phalaris arwndinacea), topographic depression that include a mixed herbaceous wetland community dominated by three-square (Scirpus americanus), cattail marsh wetland (Typha latifolia), and surface swale drainage that is dominated by reed canarygrass. With the exception of Little Dry Creek and surface connected cattail mazsh G, all wetlands were determined to be non jurisdictional by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Significant Wildlife Resources Tables 1, 2, and 3 list wildlife species that potentially occur on-site according to the Colorado Distribution Latilong Studies (CROW, 1981, 1990, 1998}. The latilong studies encompass mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. During our site investigation we encountered a number of avian species. Species included mallazds (Areas platyrhynchos), killdeer (Charadrius vociferus), red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), and western kingbird (Tyranmrs ver7icalis). The majority of birds were feeding and loafing at the time of our investigation. Coyote (Canis latrans) scat was identified along Little Dry Creek. Black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludoviciam4r) aze scattered throughout the site. ~. 50