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ANNUAL STATUS REPORT TO COLORADO STATE BOARD OF LAND COMMISSIONI?RS SAND AND GRAVEL LEASE: GL-264 (FOURTH AMENDMENT) LOWRY RANGE COAL CREEK (QUINCY AVE. SOUTH TO COUNTY LINIE) SCHMIDT CONSTRUCTION COMPANY APPLICABLE YEAR: 2004 - 2005 DUE DATE: JULY 15, 2005 In accordance with the requirements of Paragraph 6 of the lease and Item LA.S. of the Operation Plan, the following information is provided. This information update:; the previous annual status report information, if any. DATE OF FINAL INSPECTION FOR PREPARATION OF REPORT: July 12, 2005 OVERALL CONDITIONS OBSERVED IN LATE 2004 AND EARLY 2005: The winter of 2004/2005 was fairly normal with periodic periods of snow and cold interspersed with milder weather. Moisture build up in the subsoils was significant during the winter months, but is probably still sub-normal after the long and intense drought of 2001 through 2003. More shallow soils exhibited little surficial cracking as was seen in the winters of 2002 and 2003. This was probably due to the increased moisture. May of 2005 was somewhat unusual in that it was fairly dry, but still provided good moisture to this area to initiate the growing season. 1Ytuch of June was very cool and wet which produced strong growths in cool season and the earlier warm season grasses. Cheatgrass came on much more strongly than can be recalled in recent years where cheatgrass grew very little due to the drought. The spring growing conditions for leafy spurge was near ideal and it made a very strong showing in June. This added growth appears to have primarily been expended in the process of becoming more dominant where it occurs rather than expanding into new areas. In May and June of 2005 an analysis of the weed population with special emphasis on leafy spurge concluded that the spurge infestation has reached a point where it is habitat limited. That is, further large scale expansion is very difficult for this species because there is not much habitat left where the spurge has not already invaded. Additiotral expansion will require significant shifts in the habitat characteristics on the property as most of the uplands appear to be only slightly suitable habitat for this species and it already occupies nearly all of the suitable habitat in the valleys. Nevertheless, increased dominance in those valley habitats is entirely possible and that could inflict fixrther damage on the native species by crowding them out resulting in a significant shift toward even greater spurge dominance. In late June and eazly July, the weather tamed dry and hot. Later warm season species came on strongly and the prodigious growth in the early season grasses ripened. This resulted in an overall condition of the ]and that is faz more favorable than has been seen in recent yeazs. On the whole, the rangeland condition is much improved, with the exception of the incredible growths of cheatgrass. The cheatgrass is a cleaz indicator of how inherently damaged this rangeland is, in spite of how good it might look in some places. In 2005, the primary species of concern is, in fact, cheatgrass and not leafy spurge. The cheatgrass occurs in all habitats, except wetlands, whereas the spurge is limited to only the moist to mesic habitats, does not occur in Annual Status Report - 2005 for State Land Board July 15, 2005 Page 1 of 10