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<br />cottontail rabbit, coyote, bobcat, ducks, geese, and other native birds find food and <br />shelter in riparian communities (SCS 1985). <br />Wetlands are limited in the study area and occur mainly on the floodplains of major <br />streams. Most wetlands in the study area are wet meadows dominated by a mixture of <br />grasses, sedges, and rushes, including reed canarygrass, Nebraska sedge, Richardson <br />muhly, redtop, timothy, Baltic rush, streambank wheatgrass, foxtail barley, narrowleaf <br />sedge and spikerush. <br />Plant Communities of Special Concern -Several plant communities that occur in the <br />vicinity of the pipeline corridor are considered to be "vulnerable" or "imperiled" <br />in the state and throughout their ranges (Colorado Natural Heritage Program <br />1998). These plant communities and their dominants include: Montane Riparian <br />Deciduous Forest (Ater negundo/Prunus virginiana), Xeric Sagebrush Shrublands <br />(Artemisia tridentata ssp. un~omingensis/Oryzopsis hymenoides), Cold Desert <br />Shrublands (Atriplex confertifolia/Agropyron spicatum), [Varrowleaf <br />Cottonwood/Skunkbrush (Popultts angustifolia/ Rhus trilobata), and Mixed <br />Mountain Shrublands (Quercus gnmbelii/Cercocarpus montanus/Carez geyeri). <br />Documented locations of these five plant communities along the pipeline <br />corridor, to section, are shown in Figure J-2a, b, and c. <br />J.3 Parachute Site <br />The Parachute Site occupies an existing, inactive industrial site that has been extensively <br />disturbed under previous development. Significant areas within the site are currently <br />paved. Sparse vegetation is predominantly weeds. <br />The following plant species were observed to dominate disturbed areas at the Parachute <br />Site during a site visit in early June 1498: yellow sweet clover, gumweed, annual <br />sunflower, cheat grass, pennycress, prickly lettuce, and bindweed. Less disturbed areas <br />between the existing developed area and Parachute Creek support relatively dense <br />stands of rabbitbrush, with some wild rye and wheatgrass (Steigers 1998a). The latter <br />are likely located on Heldt clay loams. <br />J-8 <br />