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• J10 ' <br />1 <br />w <br /> <br />(2) Similar vegetation•conditions are common and wide spread. They are not <br />unique. (3) The vegetation 4iithin the foreseeable operations area has <br />already been destroyed in preparation for the gravel mining which will <br />precede clay mining. Detailed vegetation analyses therefore does not seem <br />justified. <br />Similarly, the area was not searched for unique or rare plants. There <br />are two reasons. (1) The climate, topography and soils are commonplace. . <br />There appeared to be no unique environmental niches to encourage unique <br />plants. (2} A complete search for unique plants takes several vis its each <br />year for several years. Unique plants may appear only in years of unusual <br />weather. they may be identifiable only in spring, summer or fall. <br />'To summarize for vegetation, either clay mining or the gravel mining <br />that will precede it on much of the lease area, will destroy the e:<isting <br />vegetation completely on the acres mined.. This need not be a perm~inent loss, <br />however. The soil appears to revegetate readily. If the land is restored <br />properly, it should be possible to revegetate it without diffictilt~~, <br />even with native plants. The plant cover 4•iill at best, however, contain <br />many weeds at the start. <br />In terms of economics the loss of vegetation is not great. Tfie Jenkins <br />site soils produce about 500 to 600 pounds per acre of air dry for<<ge annually. <br />About 250 to 300 pounds of this is available for Tivestock use. A cow 4•iill <br />consume about 25 pounds daily, During the pasturing season, thereiore, it <br />47111 take about two or three acres for each cow for each month. <br /> <br />