2010-05-07_PERMIT FILE - C2009087A (4)

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• Biotic Factors Affecting Vegetation Grasshoppers plagued the reclaimed areas of several of the Seneca mines in 2008 and may have negatively affected overall cover and production values. The predominant plant species that appears to have been targeted and denuded by grasshoppers was alfalfa. Effects of grasshopper defoliation were less noticeable in the Sage Creek study area than in other areas to the west that were also observed during the same period. Comparability Table 24 compiles the results of calculations testing the comparability of affected and reference areas. In all cases both for cover and production the reference area was demonstrated to be comparable to the affected area. Rare Species • Twenty -five rare or sensitive plant species identified in Table 23 are known to occur in Routt County or adjacent counties. Federally Listed (USFWS) Threatened, Endangered, Candidate Species, and U.S. Forest Service- or U.S. Bureau of Land Management- designated Sensitive Species found in Routt County and the bordering counties including Moffat, Rio Blanco, Garfield, Eagle, Grand and Jackson are included in Table 23. Species not known from western Routt County but with habitat preferences that could place them there such as Penstemon radicosus, Penstemon cyathophorus, and Besseya wyomingensis all of which occur in adjacent areas to the north and east in at least moderate abundance are not included here. They appropriately have no protected status and their presence in the study area would be of only mild botanic interest. In this large area of northwest Colorado, habitats (to which rare species are often narrowly adapted) are extremely diverse. Routt County itself is highly diverse in habitat conditions including elevation, precipitation and geology. Below, after a consideration of the general pattern of environmental conditions in which the 25 species occur, each of these is evaluated to ascertain • 25