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River. This is a very high degree of evidence for early agricultural development and intensive long-term year-around human use (Fuller, 1985, 1988a). More recently, Basketmaker-III and Pueblo-I habitation sites were excavated in advance of a large energy pipeline in the Animas Valley (Hovezak, 2004) and in advance of gravel-mining operations on Grandview Ridge (Fetterman and Chuipka, in preparation). These findings further emphasize that large numbers of people occupied the Animas River Valley living in both small and large communities, and left the valley somewhat abruptly in the early ninth century. The Animas River Valley remained relatively unoccupied except for seasonal use by the Utes until sometime after 1500 AD, until Spanish explorers entered the valley in the eighteenth century and the Euro-American settlement began less than a hundred years later. Historic-period cultural resources that might be located within the project area include evidence of early livestock ranching, coal mining and logging. Early ranching-related activity (post cutting areas, cow camps, brush fences, and livestock ponds) are commonly found across the upland areas adjacent to the Animas River corridor and have been found on Grandview Ridge as well. The Grandview Ridge area, where the Proposed Action is located, is described in the BLM's Class 1 Cultural Resources Overview, San Juan Field Office, Southwestern Colorado as a "High Priority Zone" for cultural resources (Collins, Grimm & Wise, 2006). This means that there are a high number of highly significant and sensitive cultural resources on Grandview Ridge. The Class I document emphasizes that of the 56 recorded sites on public BLM lands within the Durango Unit, and 45 of these lie on Grandview Ridge, an important distinction that illustrates the high prehistoric landscape potential present on this parcel of public lands. Specific to the proposed 15-acre project area, two cultural resource sites were located during a Class III inventory completed for a previous proposed gravel expansion (Arrington, 1995). One site appeared to be a Pueblo I campsite with over nine thermal features. The other site was identified as a BMIII/PI habitation with pithouse potential. Both sites were found to have extensive subsurface potential and eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Test excavations and data recovery were completed at both sites for several reason: 1) because of the encroachment of gravel operations adjacent to these sites from the west and south, 2) the dangers from high wall collapse or inadvertent damage, and 3) the difficulty that the BLM was having managing and protecting them in the face of adjacent urban development and expanding recreational use. One site was verified to be a dispersed campsite dating to the Pueblo I time period and was probably related to the second site, the habitation, just to the south about 100 yards. There was also a small late Ute component to this campsite. The second site was a stockaded hamlet dating to the Pueblo I period. This site, called Grandview Hamlet, was composed of five pithouses with associated surface rooms and domestic features. Complete data recovery was conducted at this site which spanned the BLM/LaPlata County boundary to the south of the project area (Fetterman and Chuipka, 2008). The BLM conducted data recovery at this site in cooperation with La Plata County as an interested party and part owner of the site. No other cultural resources were identified from intensive surface examination within the boundary of the current proposed gravel pit expansion area. However, since the mesa top here is composed of late quaternary-age, windblown silts and is depositional in nature, deep soils here Grandview Gravel Pit Expansion Environmental Assessment 17