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Park has been confirmed by the District Conservationist of the USDA, Soil Conservation Service as presented in <br />Exhibit 5, Pasture Management Practices in the Twentymile Park Area. <br />• Records and historical aerial photography, maintained by the USDA, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation <br />Service, of current and previous landowner in Twentymile Park, were compared with recent records and imagery to <br />determine the historic land use patterns within the proposed permit area. According to these sources, no evidence <br />was found indicating significant land use changes within the five years preceding mining. <br />Croplands <br />Within the permit area, historically cropland was the predominant pre-mining land use. Management units of <br />croplands were highly variable in size ranging from small units of 40 to 80 acres to large units which may occupy <br />hundreds of acres. Within each management unit several acres could be lost to non-tillable ground, e.g., small <br />drainage bottoms or steep slopes. However, these areas were necessarily included under this land use in-as-much <br />as they were encompassed within the historic management unit boundaries, which are often delineated by fencing. <br />Cropland was divided into two management practices. One was the harvest of cereal grains, mainly wheat, and the <br />other was hay production. Cereal grain crop rotation practices within both Twentymile Park and Routt County usually <br />rotate between winter wheat and summer fallow. However, when barley was included, the crop rotation was winter <br />wheat-barely-summer fallow. As a result of this mixture of rotations, approximately 45 percent of the cereal grain <br />cropland acreage was planted to winter wheat, another 45 percent was fallow, and the remaining 10 percent was <br />planted to barley at any given time. <br />Cropland production of hay was often on dryland sites which were often originally cultivated for wheat. Hay land <br />was managed for hay which provides feed for livestock during the winter months when pastures were covered with <br />deep snow. <br />• Livestock were not allowed to graze the hay land in the spring in order to maximize hay production. In the fall, after <br />harvesting, livestock were sometimes allowed to graze the hay aftermath. Hay fields were planted to various mixtures <br />of grasses and legumes. On drier sites, smooth hrome and alfalfa were commonly planted while on more moist sites, <br />timothy and orchardgrass were generally added to the mix. <br />Table I, Routt County Recent Historical Cropland Statistics, presents crop yields for Routt County for winter wheat, <br />barely, and hay over the past nine years. Dryland wheat crops have averaged 23.25 bushels per acre over this period <br />(1975-1983) and have ranged from 13.0 to 36.0 bushels per acre. Dryland barley crops have averaged 26.5 bushels <br />per acre over this nine year period and ranged from 16.5 to 32.0 bushels per acre. The production of hay, both alfalfa <br />and all other hays, has averaged 1.6 tons per acre over this period and ranged from 1.2 to 1.85 tons per acre. It should <br />be noted that unlike small grain production the majority (78%) of hay crops come from irrigated lands. The <br />production of oats has not been included with these figures due to the minimal amounts harvested within [he county. <br />Within the permit area cereal grain crop production was not significantly different from county averages. Table 2, <br />Typical Grain Crop Production Within and Near Twentymile Park, identifies the production figures for four ranches <br />within or near the permit boundary over the past five years. Wheat production figure averaged 26.2, 19.4 and 16.6 <br />bushels per acre for three of the ranches and 32.4 and 36.8 bushels per acre of barley for two of the ranches. The <br />USDA, Agricultural Stabilization and conservation Service does not maintain production figures for haylands <br />Since the initial permitting action, 1983, the land use has changed in regards to croplands. For Permit Revision No. <br />99-05, cropland is not the predominant land use within the permit area. The prior croplands, i.e. small grain <br />production, was converted to pastureland. The remaining cropland is all used in the production of hay, although this is <br />a limited in size. <br />u <br />In~ji ,t ~.. i ._.e _- <br />PR 99-05 2.04-3 03/28/00 <br />