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ENVIRONMENTAL DESCRIPTION <br />• The [ollo~ving brief sketch of the environment of the project ac•c]tl is intended to provide <br />information on the important characteristics of local hydrology, elevation, topography, <br />flora and fauna, and climate. Given that aboriginal groups ~:+ere dependent upon local <br />resources for food, clothing, shelter, and tools, it is assumed that the availability of local <br />resources strongly influenced the density and distribution of aboriginal sites in the <br />project area. For the nonaboriginal inhabitants who were more dependent on the wider <br />industrial economy, local environmental conditions played a lesser but still important <br />role in determining site density and distribution. An understanding of past environmental <br />conditions, then, is considered crucial to reconstructing aboriginal and nonaboriginal <br />subsistence and settlement systems. <br />GEOLOGY AI`TD SOILS <br />The project area is underlain by the Upper Cretaceous 1Villiams Fork formation, <br />consisting of sandstone, shale, and coal. The Upper Cretaceous Iles formation (Heil et al. <br />1977), stratigraphically under the 1Villiams Fork formation, also consists of sandstone, <br />shale, and coal. These formations are part of an anticline running northeast/southwest <br />through the study area. <br />Dominant soils are formed in materials weathered residually from shale, while less <br />extensive soils are formed in aeolian and alluvial deposits. Borollic Camborthids <br />comprise about o540 of the soils in the area, while Aridic Agriborolls comprise about 3540 <br />(Heil et al. 1977) <br />SETTI`IG <br />The project area is located at the northern fringe of the Williams Fork Mountain Range <br />to the north of the Yampa River valley. !'tventy Mile Park borders the study area to the <br />east, and Dunkley Park (a basin-like area) is to the south. Along the western edge of the <br />southern portion of the area is Sage Crcek and its flood plain which contains an altered <br />vegetation community that supports livestock grazing. Intermittent drainages are <br />present throughout the project area with eastern drainage into Grassy Creek and the rest <br />accumulating in Sage Creek. Both Grassy and Sage creeks flow approximately seven <br />miles north to the Yampa River. <br />7 <br />