2008-11-20_PERMIT FILE - M2008078 (8)

Home Browse Search

Lamar Gravel Property TES Screening Ecological Resource Consultants. Inc. beaches, lake shores, marshes, mudflats, and other wetland areas. In Colorado, nesting habitat consists of sandy lakeshore beaches, sandbars of riverbeds, and sandy wetland pastures. Preferred habitat is sparsely vegetated, typically less than five percent. Nest sites are simple depressions or scrapes in the sand of approximately 2 to 3 inches in diameter, often lined with pebbles, shells or driftwood to enhance the camouflage effect. The average clutch size is four eggs and young hatch about 27 to 31 days after laying eggs. Nest success depends heavily upon camouflage. Piping plovers are only about 7 inches long with round dark eyes, orange legs and stubby bills. Adult males have a plain white forehead with a dark band across the front of the crown from eye to eye and black shoulder patches. The piping plover feeds on worms, fly larvae, beetles, crustaceans, mollusks and other invertebrates that it finds along open shorelines of reservoirs, river islands and adjacent sand pits. • Neither Plover individuals nor habitat was observed within the Study Area. The Study Area does not contain typical Plover habitat such as the gravel bars and sandy shorelines that are often found along or within large rivers. Any change in land use in the Study Area should not adversely affect the continued existence or available habitat of this species. Additional threatened and endangered species typically found within the Colorado Front Range area include the Colorado butterfly plant (Guara neomexicana ssp. Coloradensis), Preble's meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius preblei) and Ute ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis). However, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Colorado Endangered Species List, these species do not occur within Prowers County. Despite not being listed species for Prowers County, the Study Area was screened for the above-listed species and it was determined that suitable habitat does not occur within the Study Area. State Endangered and Threatened Species Species identified as State endangered or threatened are protected by the Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) under Colorado Statute Title 33. State regulations prohibit "any person to take, possess, transport, export, process, sell or offer for sale, or ship and for any common or contract carrier to knowingly transport or receive for shipment" any species or subspecies listed as State endangered or threatened. The CDOW also has identified State Species of Special Concern, which are species or subspecies of native wildlife that are currently vulnerable in their Colorado range and have the potential to become threatened or endangered (CNHP, 1999). Species of Special Concern are not protected under State regulations but the `take' of individuals and disturbance of their habitat is strongly discouraged. The following State listed species were screened as potential inhabitants of the Study Area based on general habitat requirements, Colorado Natural Heritage Program lists by county (CNHP, August 2004), and the CDOW tables (revised April 2003), Colorado Listing of Endangered, Threatened, and Wildlife Species of Special Concern. ERC evaluated species listed by CDOW that are considered Endangered or Threatened. Burrowing Owl The burrowing owl (Owl) is listed as a state threatened species in Colorado. The Owl is small (length of 24 cm), long-legged, boldly spotted and barred with brown and white. Nesting habitat is abandoned burrows, especially prairie dog colonies, located in grasslands, mountain parks, well-drained steppes, deserts, prairies and agricultural lands from late March through October. The Owl can usually be observed on low perches such as fence posts, dirt mounds or the ground. Clutch size of this Owl averages six to seven and incubation lasts up to thirty days. The owlets usually run and forage at four weeks and fly at six. Primary threats to existence of this species are habitat loss due to intensive agriculture, habitat degradation and fragmentation due to control of burrowing mammals and predation by cats and dogs. 5 39