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0 As previously indicated, the upper portions of each drainage where streamside wetlands were typically <br />narrow, "unrecorded" checkpoints were utilized whereby pertinent information was indicated 'directly on <br />field maps to facilitate eventual interpretation on the high altitude CIR imagery. Such notes included <br />existence of flow, the width's of wetland and/or WUS, composition of the bed, dominant vegetation, etc. <br />The area where "unrecorded" checkpoints were utilized comprised less than 7% of the eventual acreage <br />documented from the study area. <br />These smaller streamside wetlands were typically measured as three to four feet in width (both sides <br />combined) and are represented by Sample Points Nos. 8 and 9. Furthermore, the vegetation species <br />observed along these reaches are included on Table 1 and typically exhibited dominance by Carex <br />aqualitis, Agrosits a/ba, Rudbeckia /aciniata, Juncus ba/ticus, and Prunus virginiana. Soils usually <br />exhibited strong and abundant mottling and dark matrix colors ranging from 10YR 2/1 to 10YR 3/2. <br />Hydrology was provided by lateral saturation from stream flow. <br />These headwater streamside wetlands (or WUS) were mapped upgradient until they ended at their <br />water source. These water sources were often a series of old beaver ponds and/or seeps and springs. <br />Occasionally, these wetlands ended in a concave basin where overland flow no longer concentrated <br />sufficiently to saturate the ground for a long enough period to preclude upland vegetation. <br />Streamside wetlands (including "expanded" streamside wetlands) that were typically found lower in <br />the watershed were subjected to the more formal "recorded" checkpoints that were placed at systematic <br />intervals of 0.1 miles. Table 10 presents the wetland and channel characteristics as well as the dominant <br />vegetation species at each "recorded" checkpoint on Collom Gulch beginning at a "green gate" <br />approximately 3.5 miles above the point where the creek crosses County Road 32. The upper mile of <br />stream reach below this beginning point exhibited an average wetland width of 4 feet and a WUS bottom <br />that averaged 2 feet. The channel was generally trapezoidal in shape and had been excised between 5 <br />and 10 feet into the valley bottom. Below this reach for a distance of nearly 3/4 mile, the channel largely <br />disappeared into "expanded" streamside wetlands as well as larger wetlands 2 and 3 (8.13 acres). Over <br />the next 1/2 mile, the stream reach was variable between more narrow "expanded" streamside wetlands, <br />and steep "V" shaped actively eroding channels with only a foot of wetland and a foot of WUS. The final <br />1.5 miles of Collom Gulch (until Co. Rd. 32 was encountered) was expanded streamside wetlands 10 to <br />40 feet in width along a very deeply incised channel with a WUS grass lined bottom 4 feet in width. <br />Dominant vegetation along this "recorded" checkpoint reach of Collom Gulch included: Carex aquatilis, <br />Agrostts alba, Carex nebracensis, Cirsium arvense, and Acer negundo, as well as several additional sub- <br />dominant taxa. <br />• <br />CCZDAR CCMIZIK A CCUATES, INC. Page 11 Colowyo Coal Co. - Collom Project Wetlands