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Weeds Along Access Road: For the most part, weeds along the access road are localized and <br />therefore provide a condition that should allow for fairly easy control. <br />Diffuse Knapweed: Near the top of the road and just below the entrance to the quany, <br />knapweed has a generalized distribution over much of the azea, but with a fairly small <br />population. This should not be difficult to control, although eradication is not likely to be <br />successful. The presence of knapweed in the quarry azea in combination with the passage of <br />trucks back and forth provides an idea] means to maintain or spread the population. But if the <br />population can be kept small with consistent effort over the life of the operation, final cleanup of <br />the site after completion of the mining should not be difficult. <br />Canada Thistle: Canada Thistle exhibits a spotty distribution along the roadway. In <br />some places, none could be found while other locations showed lazge concentrations. Essentially <br />all of the Canada Thistle was found to occur on the inside of the roadway, particulazly in the <br />roadside drainage ditch. Very little was seen on the outside of the roadway. It appeazs that the <br />abundant water supply on the inside of the roadway provides a good habitat for this species while <br />the much drier outside of the roadway is a difficult habitat for Canada Thistle. Canada Thistle has <br />a definite preference for more moist conditions or highly organic soils that tend to retain <br />moisture. Although it grows in dry environments, it rarely becomes a serious problem as such <br />environments are neaz the end of the moisture tolerance curve for this species. <br />Control of this species is very important along the roadway. Not only does the roadway <br />provide a conduit for transport by vehicles, but more important by water runoff. Because the <br />species is largely confined to the drainage ditch on the inside of the roadway, pieces ofplants, <br />seeds, and pieces of rhizome could easily be washed down the road and into drainages further <br />from the site. In that sense, the drainage ditch along this road is a source of further expansion or <br />at least maintenance of populations further down the drainage and off site. It is not known <br />whether this species originated from the roadways and drainages below the site and is now <br />washing back down into those drainages or if it started~~ tend has now moved down <br />the roadway. The former is more likely than the latter. CU <br />JUN 0 ~ 1003 <br />Oivisien of Minerals and Geology <br />Weed Control Efforts: As the population of weeds at this site is generally not yet extreme, <br />now would be a good time to implement some control efforts before it becomes a lazge and <br />expensive project. Early action on weed infestations can save thousands of dollars in weed <br />control efforts after an infestation becomes widely distributed in large populations. Although <br />prevention is the best course of action, that is difficult to do on a site like a mining operation <br />where there are many disturbed habitats ideal for weeds and many vehicles coming and going. <br />But with consistent, inexpensive efforts noxious weeds can be kept to low population numbers so <br />when mining is completed the final cleanup during reclamation can be done inexpensively. All it <br />Snyder Quarry Weeds Survey Report - May 2003 Page 2 <br />