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J.E. Stover & Associates, Inc January 19, 2007 Page 3 Habitat descriptions and occurrence determinations summarized in Table 1 are based on professional experience, personal communication with experts, and published resources, including but not limited to the following: Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas,3 government memoranda,4 Mammals of Colorado,s CDOW habitat maps,6 U.S. Forest Service (USES) habitat maps,' Colorado Herpetofaunal Atlas a Amphibians and Reptiles in Colorado,9 Colorado Sagebrush: A Conservation Assessment and Strategy,10 and the Colorado Rare Plant Field Guide." Physical and Ecological Setting Hamilton Mine is an inactive coal mine undergoing reclamation, located approximately 2 miles southeast of the Town of Naturita between the Bramiers Draw and Long Draw drainages. The permit boundary encompasses 757 acres within Sections 32 and 33, Township 46 North, Range 15 West of the New Mexico Principle Meridian (N.M.P.M.) and within Sections 4 and 5, Township 45 North, Range 15 West of the N.M.P.M., Montrose County, Colorado (Figure 1). A total of approximately 111 acres (Figure 2) was disturbed when the site was actively mined in 1992 and 1993 with surface mining methods on coal outcrops. In 1993, approximately 90 acres of the disturbed surface area were reclaimed with grading, topsoil application, and seeding with native grasses, (orbs, and shrubs, including Indian rice grass, needle-and-thread, blue grama, sideoats grama, sand dropseed, Cicer milkvetch, blue flax, four-wing saltbush, and winterfat. Reseeding was repeated on the entire 90 acres in 1995 and 1998, and weed control was performed in 2003. Approximately 21 acres of disturbed ground remain within the mine boundary as various haul roads and two sediment ponds. The total dead storage surface area of the two sediment ponds is 0.56 acres. The entire surface acreage of the mine is privately owned. Hamilton Mine is situated between approximately 5,800 and 6,000 feet above mean sea level (Figure 1) in the Colorado Plateau physiographic province within the Paradox Basin geologic subdivision. The Colorado Plateau in this region is characterized by open river valleys, mesas, deep canyons, and barrens in an grid to semi-arid climate. Much of the region supports semi-desert shrub and pinyon-juniper woodland ecosystems. The mine permit area is vegetated primarily with sparse pinyon-juniper woodlands, and semi-desert or sagebrush shrublands (Figure 2). Areas reclaimed following surface disturbance support annual grasses, annual forts, and sparse semi- desert shrub species. Several seasonal drainages cross the mine permit area (Figure 1); none supports significant riparian vegetation. These drainages are tributary to the San Miguel River, approximately 2 miles north. 3 Kingery, H.E. (Editor). 1996. Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas. Denver: Co. 8irtl Atlas Partnership & Co. Division of Wildlife. 636 pp. 4 Pfister, Allan R. 2003. Letter to interested parties announcing the USFWS Grantl Junction field office's decision to change the range boundary for the southwestern willow flycatcher in Colorado. April 11. s Fitzgerald, J.P., C.A. Meaney, D.M. Armstrong. 1994. Mammals of Colorado. Niwot, Colorado: Univ. Press of Co. 467 pp. e Habitat maps available at http://ndiS.nrel.wlostate.edu/intlex.html ~ U.S. Forest Service. 2006. Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, Gunnison National Forests Lynz Habitat Map. Updated February, 2006. a Colorado Herpetofaunal Allas. Available online at http://ndis.nrel.colostate.edu/herpatlas/coherpatlas/ 9 Hammerson, G.A. 1999. Amphibians and Reptiles in Colorado: A Colorado Field Guitle. 2nd Etl. Denver: University Press of Colorado 8 CDOW. 494 pp. 1O Boyle S. A. and D. R. Reetler. 2005. Coloratlo Sagebrush: A Conservation Assessment and Strategy. Grand Junction: Colorado Division of Wildlife. Available at http://wildlife.state.co.us/WiltllifeSpecies/SagebrushConservation/ " CRPTC (Colorado Rare Plant Technical Committee). 1999. Colorado Rare Plant Field Guide. Available at http://www. cn h p. colostate.edu/rareplants/cover. html. ® Rdre Eaeth Science, LLC