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Peabody Twentymile Coal Company <br />2005 Fish Creek AVF Riparian Vegetation Monitoring <br />Introduction <br />At the request of Peabody and Twentymile Coal Company ("TMCC"), Habitat <br />Management, Inc. ("HMI") initiated a vegetation study of the Fish Creek alluvial valley <br />floor ("AVF") along a reach of Fish Creek located within the TMCC permit azea in 2003. <br />Coal mining activities have been and aze currently being conducted under the creek, and <br />subsequently some azeas have subsided. The study area is located in Sections 15 and 16 <br />of Township 5 North, Range 86 West, Routt County, Colorado. Field monitoring was <br />completed during the first week of September 2205; at this time the study azea was <br />expanded to extend subsidence monitoring onto recently mined lands. <br />In 2003 HMI developed a method to objectively assess and track significant <br />changes in vegetation community composition and aerial distribution located above <br />underground mining activities over time. Since the general effect of subsidence is a <br />slump or drop in elevation over portions of the under-mined area, it was agreed that <br />monitoring the composition of vegetation communities along permanent transects located <br />above longwall mining activities would serve as a good indicator of the effects of <br />subsidence on the upland/riparian complex found in this azea. This report presents the <br />results of September 2005 monitoring activities along the transects of Fish Creek <br />established in 2003 and 2005, and compares the 2003, 2004 and 2005 observations to <br />describe changes in the vegetation resources in the riparian azea and summarize the <br />impacts of underground coal mining subsidence on the landscape. <br />Methodology <br />The methods employed for this study aze based on procedures developed by the <br />U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service ("USFS") and published in General <br />Technical Report ("GTR"), RMRS-GTR-47, "Monitoring the Vegetation Resources in <br />Riparian Areas", The specific methodology employed was Vegetative Cross-Section <br />Composition. This method involves running a series of step transects perpendiculaz to <br />the stream channel and recording the number of steps taken in each community type. <br />Using permanently located transects, the survey can be repeated annually, and the effects <br />of subsidence on the vegetation communities over time can be evaluated. <br />Habitat Management, Inc. Page 2 3/14/2006 <br />