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<br />Exhibit J - Vegetation Information <br />A vegetation inventory was originally conducted and is <br />still relevant for the purposes of this application. The <br />following data represents a compendium of information <br />regarding the vegetation covering the permit area and <br />immediately adjacent lands. Most of the actual area to be <br />affected has been previously disturbed and consists of bare <br />ground with some forbs and annual grasses ( eg. yellow <br />sweetclover, annual brome ) invading the workings. For the <br />adjacent lands undisturbed by previous mining operations, the <br />existing vegetation occurs in two distinct communities: <br />irrigated areas and a local ecotone community ( the proposed <br />affected area ) that consists of mesophytes and some phreatic <br />vegetation types such as narrowleaf cottonwood, among a scrub <br />oak overstory, inherent to the area located immediately to the <br />west of the pit. <br />The irrigated areas lie to the south and northeast of the <br />new phases and consist of fields of alfalfa and various pasture <br />grasses. Other irrigated field crops in this area include some <br />plantings of barley, oats and wheat. Timothy, Alkali Sacaton <br />and sedges were some of the species observed to be growing among <br />the pasture grasses along the fence rows of the irrigated lands. <br />Scrub oak 10 - 15 feet in height border the western side <br />of the existing pit and compose the dominant overstory species. <br />Intermixed with the scrub oak are a few cottonwood and Ponderosa <br />Pine trees. The abundance of cottonwood trees increases ( along <br />with the appearance of willow ) and the scrub oak decreases <br />as one moves west of the amended pit boundary towards the stream. <br />For the irrigated pasture lands to the east and south of <br />the pit, the groundcover basal density is estimated to be <br />generally in excess of about 75 percent. For the existing and <br />new pit area, bare ground is prevalent with isolated patches <br />of invading vegetation. Where vegetation occurs, the patches <br />have a density of no more than about ±5 percent. The overall <br />existing canopy cover of tree species immediately to the west <br />of the amended put boundary is approximately 40 ~ ( basal <br />density ranging from about 10 8 ); with the understory vegetation <br />cover of grasses, forbs and small shrubs ( such as Current and <br />Woods Rose ) on these lands ranging from about 35 to 75 percent <br />basal density. <br />In order of overall relative abundance made by visual <br />estimates, the vegetation and estimated percent range in <br />occurrence of species on the undisturbed ground adjacent to <br />the affected area are: <br />