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Private lands in the region of the Dow property are almost exclusively held by mineral resource development companies or by ranchers. The private ranching lands are primarily homesteads located along the Piceance Creek Valley and other tributaries of the Colorado and White Rivers. The ranching operations consist almost exclusively of raising cattle with some haying in the irrigated river valley bottoms. Most of these ranching enterprises also hold grazing lease allotments on adjoining Federal lands. The mineral development in the area immediately adjacent to the Dow property consists primarily of oil shale, though oil and gas drilling occurs throughout the region. Several major oil shale projects which have progressed to varying degrees of development occur in the region. These include Federal Oil Shale Lease Tracts C-a and C-b, Superior Oil, Occidental, Shell Oil and Equity Oil in-situ projects, Union Oil, the Naval Oil Shale Reserve facilities operated for the Paraho project, and the U.S. • Bureau of Mines Experimental Mine. The area contains a large deer herd. As such, big game hunting, which occurs exclusively in the autumn, is the only significant recreational activity for the region. Dow West Property Since the early 1960s the Dow West property has been used for livestock grazing and for development and testing of oil shale retorting and mining technology and the development of the oil shale reserves. These activities have included the opening of a prototype mine, with the mining of 1,200,000 tons of oil shale, the construction and operation of a 1,000 TPD Tosco II oil shale retort and related facilities, the disposal of processed shale and the conduct of experimental revegetation programs. Geologic, hydrologic and various mining studies and programs have also E-6