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by ESCO Associates (1987) represent subsets of habitat types, the interested reader is referred to the ESCO map with the following modifications: (1) agricultural habitats are composed of alfalfa hayland, cultivated land, hayland, and pasture vegetation types; (Zj grassland habitats include grassland and grassland with scattered shrubs vegetation types, and (3) mountain shrub habitats include mountain mahogany shrubland and skunkbush, American plum and chokeberry shrubland vegetation types. Approximately 908 of the project area is composed of agricultural (corn, alfalfa, haylands, etc.) and disturbed grasslands. With the exception of the extensive prairie dog towns, these habitats are relatively unattractive to wildlife and probably support the lowest wildlife richness and density values of any local habitats. The herbaceous wetlands, some of which have been cultivated into agricultural lands, are young and structurally homogeneous, and probably support wildlife communities only slightly higher than those inhabiting adjacent agricultural lands. Mountain shrub communities, composed of mountain mahogany stands on the ridges and localized, mixed chokeberry, American plum and skunkbush stands in draws, and ponderosa pine stands support richer and more diverse wildlife communities. The mature cottonwoods, which flank the irrigation canals on the southern end of the property, probably support the richest wildlife communities of any local habitat. • WZLOLIFS RBSOQRCES Virtually no quantitative wildlife data are available for the Dowe Flats project area. Most data applicable to the area containing Dowe Flats are outdated, incomplete, and/or composed of people's impressions obtained from casual observations. These data will be useful in developing quantitative baseline surveys but cannot be used by themselves to meet permitting requirements. wildlife data applicable to the study area are summarized below by taxa. FISHERIES While aquatic resources will be evaluated by other investigators, some important fisheries concerns identified during this assessment will be presented here to prevent any information from "falling through the cracks". The CNAP inventory identified the Johnny darter (Etheostoma nigrum) during a survey of the St. Vrain Creek 8 miles downstream of the project area. This species is state threatened (Langlois 1978). Based on habitat affinities of this fish, it may be present in the reach of the St. Vrain adjacent to the project area (Propst 1982 Woodling 1985). 4