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well controlled. Weed control is being accomplished through manual clearing and cutting and the ; <br />use of herbicides under the guidance of the weed control agent for El Paso County. <br />Water <br />The enhanced reclamation plans recognized that water needed to be provided to the site if the tree <br />planting efforts were to be successful. Initially, a water tank placed on-site by Castle Coucrete <br />was supplied with water by the City of Colorado Springs. Milk jugs were filled from the tank and <br />hand carried to water the seedlings. This process was very inefficient. Eventually two volunteers <br />built a water tank trailer with hoses that extend to the planting area to water each tree seedling. <br />This has been a much more successful watering system. As noted earner, there is a stationary <br />drip system that goes to some Ponderosa trees. The water is brought to the site regularly during <br />the spring and summer. This effort, along with the extensive preparation of the soil to enhance <br />water retentioq has contributed significantly to the high survival rate of the trees. <br />Rock Staining <br />A small amount of rock was stained with Permeon to determine if the stain would provide any <br />visual benefits. The stain did successfully darken the rock, but it bas been determined that <br />because most of the enhanced reclamation reties on estabnshing vegetation to create the desired <br />visual result, that staining the exposed rock, of which little remains, would not contribute much ; <br />visual benefit, if any. <br />ENHANCED RECLAMATION OF PIlCEVIEW QUARRY <br />History and Description of Pikeview Quarry <br />The Pikeview Quarry is located near Rockrimmon in northwest Colorado Springs. No clear <br />record exists as to when mining first occurred on this site, but it is beneved to be around the tum <br />of the century. The mining that exposed the most significant amount of underlying rock was <br />conducted by contractor Peter Kiewit & Sons between 1955 and 1959 when approximately 3.5 <br />million tons of rock was mined to provide material for the construction of the Air Force <br />Academy. Soon after the Academy was wmpleted the mine was idled, and at that time it had the <br />appearance of steeply sloping, stripped limestone. Castle Concrete gained access to the quarry in <br />1969 through a lease with the Golden Cycle Corporation and purchased it in 1974. To mine the <br />steeply dipping limestone deposit, Castle Concrete developed benches to create safe working <br />conditions. The benches created the linear feature that extends across the face of the quarry <br />today. Castle Concrete is currently mining the quarry. <br />The quarry has steep post-mining slopes with the predominant aspect being eastern with some <br />northeastern exposure. Due to this aspect, the quarry is cooler and has more moisture available <br />for vegetation than is found at Queens Canyon Quarry. The vegetation of most of the <br />surrounding forested azea is predominately Douglas Fir and Ponderosa Pine with Mountain <br />Mahogany and Gamble Oak. Drier areas have Pinyon Pine and Judiper. <br />(13) <br />