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VEfiETATION INFO£MATION <br />• <br />EXHIBIT J <br />OVERVIEW: The vegetation patterns on the Fountain Colony Pit site do not differ <br />greatly on the large scale. Most of the different communities are obviously <br />related to each other as well as to topographic and edaphic factors. Because the <br />soils do not differ greatly over the site and because topography, on this site, is <br />a less important factor than soil, all of the communities have many species in <br />common. <br />Most of the area is occupied by a rather dry grassland type of vegetation. A <br />few moist sites do occur in the valleys, but on the whole the area is highly <br />similar to the dry lands extending from the area around Fountain to the Arkansas <br />River. This area carries one important distinction with respect to history. It <br />was not far south of this site that the Long Expedition in the early 1800's coined <br />the term "The GYeat American Desert". This site is on the northern reaches of tkie <br />• area Major Long was referring to and even today presents the character of being a <br />semi-arid desert. In fact, it probably has not changed a great deal from when <br />Major Long first traveled down Fountain Creek to the confluence with the Arkansas <br />River. <br />The hillsides do exhibit a slightly different type of vegetation, but even <br />this is closely related to the vegetation on the upper as well as the lower <br />elevation areas. The bottoms of many of the gullies and valleys, especially in <br />the more hilly, northern portion of the site, exhibit a rather different type of <br />vegetation dominated by shrubs. At isolated locations, a few trees can be found. <br />On the entire site there are about a half dozen Ponderosa Pine trees, two Rocky <br />Mountain Junipers, and a few Cottonwoods. Other than those few trees, the <br />vegetation is dominated by grassland. <br />• page 1 of 6 ESchibit J <br />