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Black-Cooled Fertel Report <br />1 <br />Dowe Flan Project <br />1.0 INTRODUCTION <br />1 <br />Southdown, Inc., dba Southwestern Portland Cement Company (Southwestern), has obtained <br />permits fora 25 year hard rock mine within 385 acres of a 1911 acre permit area in Dowe <br />Flats, Boulder County, Colorado. Major permits required and issued include a Boulder <br />' County Special Use Permit (Southdown 1993a, SU-93-14 and V-93-8) and a Regular <br />Operation Reclamation Permit (Southdown 1993b, M-93-04) from the Colorado Mined Land <br />Reclamation Board (CMLRB). Mine development is scheduled to commence in fall/winter <br />' 1994. <br />' Dowe Flats supports a large black-tailed prairie dog (Cyrtomys ludoviciartus) town. Black- <br />footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes), afederally-listed endangered species, depend upon prairie <br />' dog towns as a source of food and shelter. Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act <br />requires Federal agencies to determine if any action authorized, funded, or carried out by <br />them is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of an endangered species. Although <br />ferrets have not been documented in Colorado since the late 1940's to early 1950's <br />(Cahalane 1954, Lechleitner 1969, Armstrong 1972), such a determination requires an <br />' appropriate survey (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [USFWS] 1989) in the case of nocturnal <br />black-footed ferrets. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br />Although there has been no federal involvement in the project requiring the conduct of <br />ferrets surveys, Southwestern voluntarily committed to conduct ferret surveys according to <br />Federal guidelines (USFWS 1989) prior to mine development. Western Ecosystems, Inc., <br />wildlife consultant on the project since 1987, was retained to conduct the ferret surveys. <br />This report documents results the of those surveys. <br />2.0 EXISTING ENVIRONMENT <br />Dowe Flats is located in northeastern Boulder County (T 3 N, R 70 W, S 9, 10, 15, 16 20, <br />and 22), north of State Highway 66, and approximately 2.5 miles east of the Town of Lyons <br />(Figure 1). Southwestern's 1911 acre mine permit area encompasses most of the valley <br />Western Ecosystems, Inc 1 November, 1994 <br />