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Disturbed Areas <br />Disturbed acreage has been kept to a minimum in the permit area by proper planning for the <br />location of mine support facilities, haul roads, and pit advance. The mining methods, as <br />discussed in Section 2.05.3, allow for a minimum amount of disturbance on an annual basis <br />(less than 100 acres per pit), when compared to strictly one or two seam mines with similar <br />production levels which disturb several hundred acres annually per pit. Topsoil and <br />vegetation are removed during the summer and fall months to allow for only enough <br />disturbance to facilitate mining advance through June of the following year. <br />Habitat Improvement Program <br />Prior to start-up of mining, Colowyo initiated a big game habitat improvement program in <br />January 1976. The purpose of this on-going program was to increase range carrying capacity <br />by increasing available browse and increased access to herbaceous species. Another objective <br />of the program was to provide increased forage on selected undisturbed areas on and adjacent <br />to the mine site to draw wildlife away from newly reclaimed areas until the vegetation <br />became established. A third benefit was to improve enough habitat prior to and during <br />mining in order to offset the temporary loss of habitat from mining. <br />The technique for habitat improvement involved using a rubber tired or tracked dozer during <br />the winter months, preferably when there was minimal snow cover and the ground was <br />frozen, to shear off the dormant shrubs a few inches above ground level. <br />The shrubs tended to shear or break off easily when the ground was frozen leaving the root <br />systems undisturbed. During the following spring, vigorous new growth from root sprouting <br />occurred, and easy access was provided for deer and elk. This technique has had the <br />additional effect of allowing grasses and forbs to establish stands that will compete with the <br />shrubs, thus prolonging heights useable by wildlife. Approximately 30 acres of overmature <br />decadent shrubs, i.e., serviceberry, oak, and chokecherry was "brushed" on an annual basis <br />through 1986. <br />Although no specific data has been collected on these areas, general observations have shown <br />that the areas are heavily utilized by both deer and elk. On all of the areas, any new shrub <br />sprouting is kept down to a height of only a few inches. The one-acre plot that was cleared of <br />vegetation and fenced in 1977 for testing by the Meeker Environmental Plant Center can be <br />used as a good comparison of the differences between browsed and unbrowsed areas that <br />have had similar treatments. Several of the unbrowsed shrubs that have grown up from root <br />sprouting in the Plant Center plot have attained heights of up to four feet in just a few years. <br />Over a five-year period, we feel the cumulative effects of improving 50-75 acres per year for <br />deer and elk use has been increasingly successful in meeting the objectives of increasing <br />available forage and drawing wildlife away from reclaimed areas. <br />This wildlife mitigation program is considered a success and was discontinued at permit <br />renewal as reclaimed areas are now attracting a large population of local wildlife populations. <br />Also, suitable areas within the permit for this mitigation had been increasingly difficult to <br />find. Much of the habitat suitable for improvement had already received treatment. <br />2.05-72