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The fish and wildlife resources sections of the application can be found on pages 56 to 87, <br />Section 2.04 of Volume 1 and in the Wildlife Appendix, Volume 9A. The Fish and Wildlife <br />Mitigation Plan can be found on pages 87 to 94, Section 2.05 of Volume 1. <br />The general area contains important winter range fix both elk and deer, and over 10,000 hunter <br />days per yeaz aze spent in this area. Golden eagles have been nesting neaz the mine site for <br />several yeazs, but no threatened or endangered wildlife species have been observed. The North <br />Fork of the Gunnison River contains twelve (l2) species of fish, including three (3) species of <br />game fish (rainbow trout, brown trout, and northern pike). However, due to the poor production <br />of benthic organisms and poor habitat conditions, the North Fork is not stocked frequently. <br />Impacts to wildlife are minimized by prohibiting public use of trails when big game aze <br />concentrated in the winter (December 1 to April 16), and by prohibiting the cutting of snags <br />except those within the actual disturbed area. <br />Description of the Operation and Reclamation Plans <br />The Bowie No. 1 Mine is an existing underground mine which has been in operation since 1975. <br />There are three major disturbed areas within the permit boundary. The original portals east of <br />Steven's Gulch are the site of the main offices, crushing and screening facilities, and storage and <br />wazehouse azeas. The Bowie No. 1 West Mine portals on East Roatcap Creek are adjoined by a <br />small maintenance facility, ventilation shaft and water tank. The coal loadout facilities are <br />located adjacent to the North Fork of the Gunnison River along State Highway 133. <br />The Bowie No. l West Mine portal facilities in East Roatcap Creek enabled Bowie Resources <br />Limited to access the reserves that had been cut off due to the fire at the main portals. Mining <br />occurred west of the main mine during the 1988 to 1993 five-year mine plan. The east mine <br />portals were rehabilitated during late 1992 and early 1993. The two mines were connected <br />underground in June 1993 and a beltline was used to transport the majority of coal out of the east <br />portals to the crushing and screening facility located at the east mine. This precluded the <br />trucking of coal from the west mine portals, which had occurred when the West Mine became <br />operational. The approved plan to construct rock slope tunnels to connect the east and west <br />mines became obsolete with the rehabilitation of the east mine portals. <br />The general direction of mining has been northwazd to extract coal from the D seam. When <br />mining was active, the coal had moved from the mining face via a continuous haulage system <br />shuttle cazs to afeeder-breaker and then out of the east mine via conveyor belt [o a surge bin, a <br />screening/crushing facility and a truck loading facility. Although mining has temporarily ceased, <br />Bowie Resources Limited periodically trucks stockpiled coal to storage silos and a railroad <br />loadout facility where it is loaded onto trains for shipment to market. <br />Because mining has been temporarily ceased, there is no predicted production rate for this <br />five-year permit term. The mine utilizes the room and pillar mining method of extracting coal. <br />Should mining startup soon, the expected life of mine would be 17 yeazs. <br />19 <br />