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WILDLIFE RESOURCES ASSESSMENT <br />DUCRWORTH PIT. WELD COUNTY. COLORADO <br />processing at existing gravel processing facilities south of the road. Mining of the gravel <br />resources will completely avoid Idaho Creek and any associated wetlands. Water within <br />Idaho Creek is fully controlled by a headgate located upstream on Boulder Creek and the <br />creek functions entirely as a controlled irrigation canal. The excavated areas reclaimed as <br />two recreational, groundwater ponds. <br />Ecological and Other Features of the Assessment Area <br />The project site is located between Highways 1 19 and 52, just west of Rinn in Weld <br />County, Colorado (Figure 1). This site historically has been used for agriculture. <br />including livestock grazing and agricultural crops. Idaho Creek has been great]} altered <br />by channelization, water diversion, and bank stabilization (riprap banks) and presently <br />functions entirely as an irrigation canal. Land use in the area consists of agriculture, sand <br />and gravel mining, light industrial and rural residential. Portions of the Idaho Creek <br />corridor have been impacted by past agricultural practices and aggregate mining. both <br />upstream and downstream of the site. Rural residential homes have been built <br />immediately north of the project site (Photograph 1). The western side of the project site <br />contains a mowed hay field composed of pasture grasses (Photograph 2). Native <br />vegetation in this area has been largely replaced by introduced grasses such smooth <br />brome (Bromopsis inermis), slender wheatgrass (Agropyron elongatum), and Kentucky <br />bluegrass (Poa pretensis). The eastern side of the project site is a grazed pasture <br />characterized by a mixture of native and introduced grasses. The entire pasture has been <br />grazed by livestock and a small colon} of prairie dogs. The grass cover within the pasture <br />is very dense and contains generally less than 5 percent bare ground. <br />Idaho Creek is characterized as a small meandering irrigation canal with a narrow <br />band of wet meadow and wetland vegetation (Photographs 3 and 4 taken in 2Q~3). <br />Vegetation along the creek consists of a variety of wetland species including reed <br />canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea), wooly sedge (Carex lanuginosa), curly dock (Rumex <br />crispus), and cordgrass (Spartina pectinala). The creek contains veq little shrub cover, <br />although patches of low growing sandbar willow (Salix exigua) are scattered alone the <br />creek. Water flow through Idaho Creek is entirely diverted out of Boulder Creek and the <br />2 ERO <br />Resources <br />Corporation <br />