Laserfiche WebLink
ANNUAL REPORT - 2007 <br />Due: December 31, 2007 <br />Permit DA 198811488 <br />Coal Creek Wetland Mitigation <br />Schmidt Construction Company <br />This is the second annual report after the 2006 amendment to the permit. The report contains <br />the results from the 2007 growing season, analysis of the exclosure vegetation, results of the stream <br />rehabilitation efforts on the south end (Section 25), and discussions of related issues. Some of the <br />information presented last year (exclosure maps, plots of vegetation transects, etc.) are not presented <br />this year as it would be redundant in the file. In the final report, much of this information will be <br />presented again. <br />Introduction: At the end of the first year (2006 report) there was a considerable array of <br />populations of willows and cottonwoods. Herbaceous growth in the exclosures had increased as a <br />result of the removal of grazing, but it was still not dense growth except in very favorable locations <br />and then only in the three older exclosures (3, 4, and 5). But it was also found that in the first year, <br />woody plant growth showed more robust growth, larger leaves, and somewhat taller plants than at <br />the beginning of the year. In the youngest exclosure, number 1, woody plant density was very high <br />with many young plants and only a few plants that were more than first or second season plants. It <br />was expected that in Exclosure 1 there would be a dramatic decline in density in 2007. In Exclosure <br />2, the driest of the five exclosures, density was very low, but in the more moist areas there was a fair <br />number of young plants. So, that, in brief, was the results of the first year. <br />The 2007 Growing Season: Unlike 2006, the 2007 growing season was incredibly favorable. At <br />the end of 2006, heavy snows came just before Christmas and continued through January. In fact, the <br />sand mining operation was closed much of the time during this period because it was either <br />inaccessible or any sand produced was full of ice chunks. The grazing lessee's cattle were often belly <br />deep in snow and he had to supply tons of feed just to keep them alive. By February conditions had <br />improved some, but the deep snow remained over virtually all the ground well into ]ate February. <br />By March the melt had begun. The entire site essentially turned into a mud hole. The soils <br />quickly saturated to great depth and all additional melt flowed off the hillsides into Coal Creek. Coal <br />Creek ran brown with mud and in places overflowed its banks. Interestingly though the flow was <br />only from the East Valley north. There was little flow south of the East Valley and what there was <br />simply flowed through the drainage in a gentle mostly clear stream. <br />By the time May came, both the uplands and lowlands exploded in grass growth and that rich <br />growth continued most of the summer. By July it turned a bit dry and hot and the uplands began to <br />brown some, but the stream corridor remained rich and green. Autumn was generally dry, but the <br />2007 Annual Report Coal Creek Wetland Mitigation Permit DA 198811488 Page 1 <br />