2006-12-18_REVISION - M1978314 (3)

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King Mountain Sand and Gravel Mine Ecological Resources Assessment Page 5 Current operations are confined to an area in the central portion of the Property east of County Road 3 (Figure 3). To the east of the active pit is an old equipment yard (boneyard) covering more than 8 acres that is a relict from previous ownership (Figure 4). King Mountain Gravel, LLC cleaned up this boneyard this year. The mine is a dry pit operation that is above the water table and does not require dewatering. The property has been drilled in order to determine the depth of the gravel deposit, to determine the depth to groundwater, and to take samples for construction materials testing to make sure it meets specifications for products such as road base, structural fill, asphalt aggregates, and concrete aggregates. The material has passed various ASTM and CDOT specification tests. Since the pit is placed on the top of the terrace, no wetlands are impacted by Project operations. Wetlands on [he Project site include Montane Riparian Shrubland, Graminoid Wetland and Aquatic habitats described below in Section 4.2. Total wetland acreage is estimated at 33.51. CDOW submitted a referral letter to DRMS on January 7, 2005, and to Banks and Gesso, LLC, representing King Mountain Sand and Gravel, LLC, on February 9, 2005. These letters contain an assessment of potential Project impacts and suggested mitigation. Banks and Gesso subsequently proposed a Wildlife Mitigation Plan, dated April 22, 2005. The CDOW letter dated Febmary 9, 2005, and the Wildlife Mitigation Plan are included in Appendix 4. 4.0 VEGETATION RESOURCES 4.1 Introduction The property was surveyed on September 18 and 19, 2006. Fieldwork focused on describing the presence and distribution of plant communities and the common plant species found in these communities. A total of 83 vascular plants were identified during the fieldwork. A list of all plant species identified is included in Appendix 2A. Plant nomenclature follows USDA Soil Conservation Service (1999). I[ is likely that more than 150 species of plants occur on the Property. Since the fieldwork was conducted in September, many early blooming plant species were unlikely to be identified. Of the 83 plants identified, 65 aze native, or approximately 78%. These include all the trees, shrubs, and sedges. This plant species composition indicates that most of the property is in fair to good ecological condition. Further, native plant communities cover more than 89.8% of the Property (excluding Disturbed Sites, Tame Pasture, and Stock Pond communities described below). 4.2 Description of Vegetation Communities Based upon the field work nine vegetation communities are described for the Property. These communities are summarized in Table 1 and displayed in Figure 6 below, and described in the text that follows.