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Rick Sherman Wildlife Biologist March 2, 1994 Page -2- I believe that it 1s worthy of mention that with all of the traffic that our company has contributed to Highway 550 South over the past several years, we have not had a single incident of a vehicle hitting an animal of any species, wildlife in particular. Your letter indicates that the migration of mule deer between the Billy Creek State Wildlife Area and the Uncompahgre River riparian area and adjacent lands is an activity that causes you great concern since Highway 550 traverses the Uncompahgre Valley between the two areas. In order to understand the natural pattern of mule deer migration, I visited the Division of Wildlife office in Grand Junction and learned that mule deer typically move twice daily, late evening around dusk and early morning around dawn. As winter arrives and intensifies, and available range decreases, they naturally congregate around "winter ranges" such as the B111y Creek Area. This winter time bunching magnifies the traffic hazard problem because of the greater number of animals in a concentrated area since the twice daily routine continues, but on a much larger scale. If our understanding of the mule deer migration pattern is correct, we believe that the traffic generated by our proposed operation will pose a negligible threat to the mule deer herd. The basis for this belief is that activity out of the site will occur at a time that is not concurrent with the typical migration pattern. It is normal for our work to occur during daylight hours, commencing after dawn and ceasing prior to dusk. This schedule will keep us well away from the periods of time that the deer move back and forth in their daily routines. Also, our work is seasonal in that during the time that the herds are beginning to move down and congregate in the winter ranges, our activity begins to diminish to the point that we are largely inactive, based on the severity of the weather. We then are not able to resume our activities until winter subsides and the weather becomes milder. This corresponds with the higher ranges opening up and the herds being able to disperse and move to higher elevations away from the winter ranges. It is probable that there is a number of resident mule deer that don't leave the area during the warmer seasons. This being the case, we still rely on their innate pattern of migration to keep them safe from our truck traffic. Regarding your concern that our proposed operation will be disruptive to the various species of wildlife that uses the riparian area east of our operation, we reiterate that all of our activities will be confined to the upper terrace, away from the riparian zone. According to the Colorado Department of Health Stormwater Discharge Permit criteria, water from storm events will be retained on site This will be accomplished by the construction of berms and other retention methods. This will eliminate the possibility of contaminates leaving the site and entering the water system. United Companies of Mesa County inc.