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Permit M77-424 Amendment 1 <br />Exhibit J <br />Page 3 of 3 <br />mixed with pinyon and juniper to Douglas-fir forests. See Exhibit J from the original <br />permit for a description of the Douglas-fir forest vegetation community type. <br />The lower sections of the water transmission pipeline and the evaporation pond azea in all <br />directions but south are chazacterized by the pinyon-juniper brush mix comprised mainly <br />of gambel oak (Quercus gambelii), true mountain mahogany (Cerocarpus montanus), <br />service berry (Amelanchier alnifolia), and snowberry (Symphoricarpos). Brush species <br />vary in occurrence and percent cover. Understory vegetation is scant and geologic <br />erosion rates are moderately high. These vegetation conditions are particularly evident <br />on the hillslopes immediately surrounding the pond, where soils derived from weathered <br />shales on steeper slopes are relatively uncompacted and loose, and soils on more <br />moderate slopes typically are desiccated, moderately compacted, and support limited <br />vegetation. Estimates of cover for the pinyon juniper brush mix range between 20 and 75 <br />percent with plant heights between 7 and 8 feet (brush) and exceeding 12 feet (pinyon <br />and juniper trees) in places. The pinyon-juniper-brush mix vegetation community exists <br />dominantly within the Dominguez, Sunup, and $iedsaw soil types that exist azound the <br />affected lands of the evaporation pond area. <br />South of the evaporation pond constitutes an area vegetated with abrush-dominated <br />grassland composed of rubber rabbit brush (Crysothamnus nauseous) in developed <br />gullies, shadscale (Atriplex confertifolia), snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae}, little <br />sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula?), and various grasses (galleta grass [Pleuraphis Torr.], <br />and cheatgrass [Bromus tectorum L.j, with very few pinyon and juniper trees. This <br />vegetation community is dominant on gently-sloped to relatively flat areas to the south of <br />the evaporation pond with a cover estimate ranging between 20 and 60 percent and with <br />plant heights ranging from 1 to 2 feet for the shrubs and grasses and exceeding 10 feet for <br />the sparsely distributed pinyon and juniper trees. Brush-dominated grasslands exist <br />mainly within the Dominguez soil type found south of the evaporation pond. <br />There is no production of hay or other crops in the vicinity of the affected lands <br />associated with the water transmission pipeline and the evaporation pond. <br />