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dominant in a few azeas and the wheatgrasses also showed excellent growth along with many of the forbs. Wetlands rapidly expanded to their former extent and in some azeas established themselves in habitats where few wetland species had previously been seen. In June 2007, the pattern changed again. Once again, rain was rare and hot, dry conditions were the norm. Fortunately, with the replenished subsoils, grass growth continued to be strong and the warm season grasses such as blue grama showed major gains. On a larger scale, a large, entrenched high pressure cell over the western United States literally baked the Great Basin and the Mojave Desert. Some of this disastrously dry weather lapsed over into eastern Colorado, but generally eastern Colorado escaped the worst of the terrible heat further west. By the end of the report yeaz, patterns seemed to show a slight constriction of the still persistent high pressure to the west and eastem Colorado shifted to being influenced by a more northerly and northwesterly flow with its cooler air and somewhat greater moisture. However, the lower atmosphere has remain mostly capped with high elevation hot air flowing in from the west and that has retazded thunderstorm development. Finally, as of this writing, there is little sign of any monsoon development because the intense high pressure to the west is holding monsoonal moisture to the south. Until the high pressure breaks down and the more normal low pressure develops in the southwest there is little opportunity for monsoonal moisture to flow northward over Colorado. Long range forecasts continue to show the high pressure breaking down, but when the date of the predicted demise of the high pressure is reached it is still there as strong as before and the predicted weakening has been extended yet further into the future. In the spring of 2007 some climatologists predicted there would not be a monsoon this year due to a blockage of moisture with an intense and persistent high pressure cell over the southwest. Apparently, at least so far, they were correct. 2. Topsoiling - Not a great deal of topsoiling was done in the last yeaz. A. Locations of topsoiling - All the topsoiling done in the last year was on the pit west of the main road. One area of about an acre or so was done on the south end of this pit and another area slightly smaller and not yet neazly finished was done in the middle portion of this pit. B. Depth of topsoiling - Topsoil depth far exceeded the minimums required by the plan and if subsoil is included with topsoil, depths in some locations exceeded six feet. C. Final grading of topsoiled lands - None of these topsoiled lands aze finished well enough to receive final grading. That will come later in the year. 3. Accommodation for drainage - Drainage is still being contained within pit areas as the pit areas are not sufficiently protected to allow the establishment of external drainage paths. Status report for 2007 (July 15, 2007) Page 8 of 12