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within the permit area. Therefore baseline information may be assumed to be similar for the <br />two areas. <br />Farmsteads, Orchards. Facilities, and Other Tvaes. The remainder of the study area <br />includes farmsteads, orchards, support facilities, roads, ponds, irrigation ditches, and disturbed <br />areas. Because of the intensity of activity in the area, the number of operators within the study <br />area, and the length of time that these activities have been ongoing in the area, a significant <br />amount of the study area is included within this category (approximately 16 percent of the <br />study area and 8 percent of the permit area). <br />There are eleven active farmsteads or homesites within the study area and three inactive or <br />abandoned farmsteads. Five farmsteads or homesites occur within the permit area. The size <br />of these range from over three acres down to less than one acre and include buildings, yards, <br />corrals and other support facilities (see Figure 4-4, background, and Figure 4-8, right <br />background, Peabody Appendix 10-4). In the western half, and a portion of the southeast <br />corner of the study area, the farmsteads and homesites have been established on the better <br />soils and more gentle topography of the study area. The remainder are located on poorer soils <br />• that tend to be rocky and shallow, though the topography tends to be relatively gentle. <br />Vegetation in these areas consists of a variety of annual and perennial exotic species, as well <br />as remnant examples of the native plant populations. Dominating the vegetation are large <br />native and exotic shade trees, as well as ornamental and exotic shrubs. Peabody Appendix <br />10-1 "Species List" lists the more prominent species found in these areas. A detailed survey <br />for herbaceous species was not conducted in the farmstead areas because of the numerous <br />garden, ornamental, and other exotic species hormatly found in these areas. <br />Six abandoned orchards occur within the study (see midground of Figure 4-9, Peabody <br />Appendix 10-4). The dominant species in these orchards is apple (Malus sylvestris), with <br />peach (Prunus persica) and apricot (Prunus armeniaca) also occasionally present. The <br />orchards were established coincidentally with establishment of the Nucla community and <br />mining activities in the Telluride Mining District where much of the harvested fruit was sold to <br />the mining community. By the 1940's the market was essentially defunct, and the orchards <br />began to be abandoned (Johnson, personal communication, May, 1987). Interviews with <br />operators who live or operate within the study area indicate that incidental use is made of these <br />• (REVISED 9/99) 2.04,10 - 52 <br />