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Numerous wildlife species inhabit the general area. Mule deer and elk which utilize the mountain shrub habitat in, and adjacent to, the permit area throughout the yeaz are the most prominent big game species. The northern bald eagle is a winter resident along the North Fork of the Gunnison River and is the only rare or endangered wildlife species known to exist in the area. The North Fork of the Gunnison River from Paonia Reservoir downstream five miles to Somerset is stocked by the Division of Wildlife with rainbow trout and supports an estimated 2,000 angler days per yeaz. Below Somerset to the confluence with the Gunnison River, the fishery is less important, with rough fish such as suckers, scuplins and northern pike making up a larger proportion of the fish population. Description of Operations and Reclamation Plan Mining operations at the Bear No. 3 Mine are described in Sections 2.05.2, 2.05.3 and 4.02 to 4.11, Exhibits 14 and 19, and Maps 9, 9a and 10 of the Bear No. 3 permit application. The Bear Coal Company ceased extracting coal from the Bear No. 3 Mine in 1996. The Bear No. 3 Mine was an underground room and pillaz operation, producing an average of 450,000 to 500,000 tons of coal per year from the B-Seam. The coal mined by Bear Coal Company was transported from the underground workings via conveyors to the Beaz No. 3 portal, and then to a stacking tube and coal stockpile. Coal was then transported from the stockpile azea by conveyor to a truck loadout facility and trucked to the Terror Creek Loadout facility (Colorado Permit No. C-83-059) near Bowie, Colorado, or to the Sanborn Creek Mine (Permit No. C-81-022) for shipping. The Bear No. 3 operation began in 1982 and initially involved the mining of the C-Seam in Federal Coal Leases D-052501 and C-01170192. Several of the portals and entries ofthe abandoned pre-law Edwards Mine were rehabilitated and used for the Bear No. 3 Mine portals and entries. Mining commenced from the outcrop of the C coal seam exposed in the mountainside south of the North Fork of the Gunnison River. The main entries proceeded updip in a southerly direction with panel development areas extending both easterly and westerly from the mains. Ramps to the B-Seam were constructed extending south from the C-Seam main entries. A sediment control system, including a sediment pond, drainage ditches and culverts, had been constructed to control surface runoff from the portal and surface facilities azeas. Topsoil had been salvaged and stockpiled for use in the final reclamation. Final reclamation at the Beaz No. 3 Mine entailed facilities removal, portal backfilling, and regrading the mine bench and face-up area to a stable configuration. The regraded area was ripped, topsoiled and revegetated. The post-mining land use for the Bear No. 3 Mine is primarily wildlife habitat, with a limited residential use of the facilities area. There is an area just to the west of the Bear No. 3 Mine portals where smoldering coal, a landslide and a spring are all occurring simultaneously. During several field inspections, it has been observed that coal is smoldering in an area just west of the Bear No. 3 portals, at the level of the upper bench. The Division conducted a surface evaluation of this area and found elevated surface temperatures associated with vent fractures at the C-seam coal bed level. Caution when in this azea was recommended. The Division will continue to monitor the situation. 11