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r <br />i <br />57ATE OF COLORADO • <br />Roy Romer, Governor <br />DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES <br />DIVISION OF WILDLIFE <br />AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER <br />John W. Mumma. Director <br />6060 Broadway <br />Denver, Colorado 80216 <br />Telephone: (303) 297-1192 <br />October 22, 1996 <br />Carl Mount <br />Division of Minerals and Geology <br />1313 Sherman Street Room 215 <br />Denver, CO 80203 <br />III IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII • <br />REFER TO <br />RECE <br />Vildlrfe - <br />o~r 2 s t ~ztlpi~ <br />DlvibiCn m Ivlmdlnib ~ Ucuioyy <br />RE: File ~M-96-064 -Denver Brick Comt~any -Stevens Clay Lease <br />Dear Carl: <br />I have discussed this Application with District Wildlife Manager Rich Antonio, who had looked <br />at this site earlier. <br />We have three concerns with this proposal from a wildlife standpoint: <br />1) Proposed mining in Phase 3 of the plan would encroach on the mountain mahogany/oakbrush <br />covered hillside at the northwest corner of the site. Rich had been under the impression that this <br />upper portion of the site would not be disturbed, but the plan appears to indicate mining of <br />almost the entire hillside. We would suggest that either mining be limited to the lower portions <br />of the hill, or that an extremely aggressive revegetation plan be implemented to assure that <br />woody vegetation and native grasses aze restored to the hillside azea following mining. The <br />current revegetation plan does not propose any shrub revegetation at all. <br />2) The proposed detention pond at the southeast corner of the tract would straddle the stream <br />corridor, which supports a significant amount of woody vegetation in this area. If the stream <br />bottom area were to be cleared of vegetation during this process, we would again suggest <br />aggressive revegetation of the streamway with native trees, shrubs, and grasses. On the other <br />hand, if the detention pond is to be created by building of a dam with minimal disturbance of <br />the stream bottom vegetation, wildlife should not be much affected. It is not clear to us from <br />the information provided what type of action will occur. <br />3) The southern edge of the Phase 3 mining area appears to encroach very closely on the north <br />east side of the stream corridor on the west half of the property. This portion of the stream also <br />is well-vegetated and has good value as wildlife habitat, so we are concerned that mining not <br />actually remove any of the stream-side vegetation or otherwise unreasonable encroach on this <br />corridor. It is very possible that if mining were to occur up to the "mining limit" line on the <br />map, habitat would be affected in the corridor. <br />DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, James S. Lochhead, Executive Director <br />WILDLIFE COMMISSION, Arnold Salazar, Chair • Rebecca L. Frank, Vice Chair • Mark LeValley, Secretary <br />Louis F Swilt, Member • Jesse Langston Boyd, Jr., Member <br />Chuck Lewis, Member • John Stulp, Member • James R. Long, Member <br />