Laserfiche WebLink
<br />• 7.9.3 Fish <br />Waters of the project area are tributary to the Upper Colorado River Basin and are <br />indirectly associated with its endangered fish species: the Colorado squawfish <br />(Ptychocheilus Lucius), humpback chub (Giln cypha), razorback sucker (Xyrauchen <br />texartus), and bonytail chub (Gila elegaris). Of these, only the Colorado squawfish <br />occurs in the White River in Colorado. Two additional Upper Colorado River <br />Basin fish species that occur in the White River, the flannelmouth sucker <br />(Catostomus latipirlnis) and the roundtail chub (Gila robustn), are candidates for <br />listing. None of these listed or candidate species is known to occur in Piceance <br />Creek. <br />Another Upper Colorado River Basin candidate species, the Colorado River <br />cutthroat trout (Oncorlrynchus clarki plerrriticcts), occurs in headwater streams <br />outside the influence of the project. Known populations of the Colorado River <br />cutthroat trout are located in Trapper Creek and Northwater Creek (T5S, R95W) 4 <br />miles or more east of the proposed pipeline corridor and well upstream from <br />Parachute Creek (Colorado Natural Heritage Program 1998b). This trout is endemic <br />to the Upper Colorado River Basin and is considered by the BLM to be a sensitive <br />species. <br />7.10 CULTURAL AND PALEONTOLOGICAL RESOURCES <br />• The Piceance Creek Basin has known human use for at least 10,000 years (BLM 1982). <br />Knowledge of the earliest human occupation comes from projectile points used by <br />Paleo-Indians for hunting big game. Cultural resources also include historical Euro- <br />American camps, homesteads, settlements, and roads. <br />Information on the cultural resources of the Piceance Site comes from a series of <br />site-specific cultural resources inventories associated with development of <br />American Soda's Yankee Gulch Joint Venture Leases. Information on cultural <br />resources occurring along the pipeline corridor has been taken from the <br />environmental assessments for two natural gas pipelines that the pipeline corridor <br />will largely parallel (Barrett 1994, CIG 1995). <br />The BLM has indicated that fossil remains of Titanotheritrm and Uintatheritrm <br />(large prehistoric mammals} have been found in Uinta Formation outcroppings in <br />the Piceance Creek Basin. These and other vertebrate fossils, as well as insect and <br />plant fossils, have been found in Eocene formations as close as Horse Draw (BLM <br />1998a). The locations most likely to be of concern are areas of exposed rock and <br />those overlain by shallow soils. The BLM has not required that specific <br />paleontological surveys be performed for the commercial mine plan (Steigers 1998, <br />BLM 1998e). <br /> <br />Amencan Soda, L.L.P. 7_~ <br />Commercial Mine Plan <br />August 16. 1996 <br />