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5 <br />• Grassland and Mountain Shrub communities, as well as an intermediate Sage- <br />brush community. The Grassland communities generally consist of small <br />meadow areas and present favorable conditions for the growth of wheatgrasses, <br />bluegrasses, bromegrasses, and needlegrasses. These usually occur in the <br />bottoms of the wider drainages and small valleys. The intermediate Sage- <br />brush communities intermix with the grassland areas at the edges and in the <br />smaller and higher open areas. The Sagebrush communities contain big sage- <br />brush with an understory of wheatgrasses and Indian ricegrass. <br />The Mountain Shrub community consists of a dense stand of shrub growth <br />including big sagebrush, serviceberry, bitterbrush, rabbitbrush, and <br />Gamble's oak. At times this growth becomes very dense, but in some <br />cases is fairly open with grass and fortis as an understory. In sheltered <br />and better watered hillside localities, aspen trees occur in dense stands. <br />In the drier western portion of the Williams Fork Mountains, and on <br />Iles Mountain, the vegetation reflects a drier climatic regime as shown <br />by the presence of juniper. Pinon occur farther west but none were <br />observed on the tracts. <br />Fauna observed in the area during the survey work include elk, <br />white-tailed deer, numerous rodents, and a large population of raptors. <br />Other than a large number of rattlesnakes, few reptiles were seen. Evi- <br />dente of bear was observed in Tract 9. <br />Paleo=Environmental Reconstruction <br />Since little or no information is presently available in the form <br />of pollen analyses and related studies, there is no way to arrive at an <br />• accurate estimate of the paleo-environmental characteristics of the Williams <br />~ Fork Mountains. It is possible, however, to provide a brief scenario <br />based on what is known about post-Pleistocene environments. <br />