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Uecen:ber 1. ?_003 Pugs 3-~3 <br />3.8.3 Potential Lease Stipulations <br />There are no management and mitigation measures proposed for socioeconomic aspects of mining coal <br />from the West Flatiron LBA tract. <br />3.9 Short Term Use Versus Long Term Productivity <br />Short-term uses are those that generally occur on ayear-to-year basis. Examples are wildlife and <br />livestock use of forage, recreation, and use of the water resource. Long-term productivity is the capability <br />of the land to provide resources, both market and non-market for future generations. Relationships <br />between short-term uses of the environment and long-term productivity occur in both Alternative 1 and <br />Alternative 2. <br />Short-term uses such as mining may be said to represent irretrievable commitments of resources. As an <br />example, the removal of vegetation from facility sites certainly prevents the vegetation from serving as <br />forage for wildlife and livestock for a certain period of time. However, after a period of time, which would <br />be based on the reclamation plan, vegetation would again re-establish and serve the desired purpose. <br />This would occur because the basic long-term vegetative productivity would not be destroyed by the <br />short-term use ofmine-related activities; therefore, no irreversible damage would occur. <br />Coal mining activities on the West Flatiron LBA tract would be short term with mining expected to last only <br />three months at the present MCC permitted coal extraction levels. The short-term use of the LBA tract <br />would be to recover as much coal as is economically feasible, with mitigation employed to reduce impacts <br />to acceptable levels. <br />Since no surface disturbance (other than subsidence) would occur, no impacts to long-term productivity of <br />environmental resources (vegetation, soils, wildlife habitat, etc.) are expected to occur. Both Alternative 1 <br />and Alternative 2 would result in short-term uses (such as coal extraction) which irretrievably commit or <br />diminish coal resources in the region. <br /> <br />Fr~dircr~rrient~I ~ssessrnent, <br />ir'Vest =le,t~rcir I B.4 Tract <br />r~unniscn County, Coicrado <br />