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Productivity In order to determine if productivity differed between elk using areas being mined versus control areas, helicopter surveys were conducted from July 16-17 and 19-21, 1984. These flights were conducted during the first 2 hours of light in the mornings and the last 1~. hours of light in the evenings. The purpose of these flights were to conduct cow/calf counts on three impacted sites (Colorado Yampa Coal Company, Mine 1; Seneca, Mine II; Pittsburg Midway, .Edna Mine) and four control sites (Middle Creek, Quarry Mountain, Thorpe fountain, Dunckley Flat Tops and Little Flat Tops). Each area was flown on two separate days... __ .. Calving Home Range Fidelity In order to determine what fidelity elk exhibit for calving areas and make statistical comparisons between elk using mine areas and control elk, home ranges for each elk were determined using Mohr's (1947) minimum convex polygon method. Two different home ranges were calculated for each elk. Observations between May 15 and June 30 were used to delineate the general calving home range. Data gathered from May 25 to June 15 was utilized to. identify the refined calving home range. These home ranges were then used to estimate year to year fidelity by planimetering the amount of overlap between home ranges in consecutive years. The area of overlap was then divided by the smallest of the two overlapping home ranges to give a relative percent overlap. As another index to fidelity, centers of activities ("arithmetic mean center", Dixon and Chapman 1980; "geometric center", VanWinkle 1975) were calculated for each calving home range. The distance between year to year calving home range activity centers was then measured. Analysis of variance and Duncan's multiple range test were then used to determine differences (in home range size, relative percent overlap, and distance between activity centers} between elk using mine sites and control areas. Significant levels used were o(= 0.05. 2