Laserfiche WebLink
J <br />Mr. William Clark <br />Page 2 <br />January 2, 1997 <br />4. The location, configuration, and proposed post mining land uses of the disturbed <br />areas suggest that the need to reestablish woody plants is not a prime concern or <br />necessary. The Elk Creek mine facility area is located immediately next to the <br />Town of Somerset or adjacent to the Union Pacific railroad line. The post mining <br />land use is undeveloped land/residential use. The Sanborn Creek Mine portal area <br />is adjacent to the highway and the railroad and has a post mining land use of <br />undeveloped land. The power line road is a narrow right of way that stretches <br />several miles and as such lends itself to natural seeding and infiltration. The Bear <br />Creek site is small and adjacent to an existing public use road. The Upper and <br />Lower Hubbard Creek portal sites are being developed as trail heads in <br />conjunction with either the Bureau of Land Management or the US Forest Service. <br />The smaller portal sites, once stabilized, are also susceptible to natural seeding and <br />infiltration by the woody plant communities as evidenced on the Lower Hubbard <br />Creek site where an old portal access road has been taken over by Gambel oak. <br />5. Experience at the $lue Ribbon Mine, which is located in the Hubbard Creek <br />drainage basin across from the Upper Hubbard Creek portal area, suggests that elk <br />and deer will use a reclaimed area that is herbaceous in nature over one that is a <br />complex woody plant community. <br />Oxbow Carbon & Minerals, Inc. is committed to reclaiming the disturbed areas identitied in its <br />mining permit in the best manner possible. To this end, the reclamation seed mix has been revised <br />to include fewer species and an alternate species list should seeds in the primary mix become <br />unavailable or prohibitively expensive. The reclamation seed mixture being used provides a <br />mixture of grasses, fortis and shrubs to stabilize a reclaimed area and allow the natural cycle of <br />infiltration to begin. The reclamation and alternate species seed lists are attached for your <br />reference. Based on the above, Oxbow Carbon & Minerals, Inc. requests that the Division of <br />Wildlife approve the elimination of the woody stem density standard from the Sanborn Creek <br />Mine reclamation plan. Oxbow also requests that correspondence on this request be sent to the <br />above address with a carbon copy sent to Mr. Tom Anderson. Mr. Anderson's address is <br />Oxbow Carbon & Minerals, Inc. <br />P. 0. Box 535 <br />Somerset, Colorado 81434 <br />