PERMFILE110087

• Permit No: C1980007
• IBM Index Class Name: Revision
• Doc Date: 12/2/2004
• Doc Name: 2.04.10 Vegetation Information
• Type & Sequence: PR10
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

West Elk Mine
• 2.04.10 Vegetation Information
Introduction
Baseline vegetation data for West Elk Mine were collected in three steps. First, vegetation in the
30,600-acre environmental study azea (Map 3) was inventoried and mapped in 1975, 1976, 1993,
and 1994. Vegetative structure was also sampled and quantitatively analyzed during 1975 and
1976. Information acquired in this step provides an overall baseline description of vegetation at
West Elk Mine.
In the second step, vegetation in the azea to be physically disturbed by the mine was mapped and
sampled. Cover and production were quantitatively sampled. Comparable reference azeas were
also established and sampled. This work occurred in 1980.
In 1981, the CDMG asked MCC to enlazge and resample one of the reference azeas. This final
step was accomplished in 1982. The dry meadow reference azea was enlazged and resampled along
with the affected azea dry meadow vegetation type. Data from the last two steps were used to
determine MCC's revegetation success criteria.
During the Apache Rocks permit revision, (PR06) an evaluation of the vegetation baseline
description was undertaken. During this evaluation several changes to the text within this section
were undertaken. The substance of these changes is as follows: Two vegetation communities were
redesignated to better reflect their dominant plant component or generally accepted common name.
Wet mixed shrub was renamed oakbrush and dry mixed shrub was renamed xeric mountain shrub.
• ' No plant communities were eliminated. The community designated Oak was combined with and
added to the description of the oakbmsh community, as it represented no more than an ecotonal
variant of the oakbrush community. Community descriptions were reorganized in order of
predominance within the study azea. Descriptions for chained azea, reservoir, residential, industrial,
and agricultural were eliminated from this section as they more accurately represent or describe land
uses, activities, man-made structures, or management practices and as such were inconsistent with
the regulatory requirements of Section 2.04.10.
As surface disturbance in Sylvester Gulch was not anticipated during the initial pemutting of West
Elk Mine, a baseline vegetation investigation was conducted in July and August 1996 for the
Sylvester Gulch Facilities Area (PR07). The baseline vegetation investigation is provided in
Exhibit 32A.
A baseline vegetation study was conducted in September 1995 for the Refuse Pile Expansion
(RPE) azea. Vegetation sampling was performed in accordance with Rules 2.04.10 and 4.15, and
current botanical and plant ecological methods. This report is included in Exhibit 70, Appendix
M.
Plant Community Distribution in the Environmental Study Area
Distribution of plant communities is dependent upon several physical and biologic factors.
Availability of water, nutrients, light, adequate rooting medium (soil) and temperatures amenable to
• growth are the physical factors affecting plant community and individual plant species distribution.
Biologic factors affecting plant distribution include reproductive propagule availability, competition
2.04-136 Revised Nmember 1004 PRl0