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No threatened or endangered plant species have been identified on the permit area. <br />Fish and Wildlife - Rules 2.04.11, 2.05.6(2), 4.18 <br />The fish and wildlife resources sections of the application can be found on pages 56 to 87, Section 2.04 of <br />Volume 1 and in the Wildlife Appendix, Volume 9A. The Fish and Wildlife Mitigation Plan can be found <br />on pages 87 to 94, Section 2.05 of Volume 1. <br />The general area contains important winter range for both elk and deer, and over 10,000 hunter days per <br />year are spent in this area. Golden eagles have been nesting near the mine site for several years, but no <br />threatened or endangered wildlife species have been observed. The North Fork of the Gunnison River <br />contains twelve (12) species of fish, including three (3) species of game fish (rainbow trout, brown trout, <br />and northern pike). However, due to the poor production of benthic organisms and poor habitat <br />conditions, the North Fork is not stocked frequently. <br />i <br />Impacts to wildlife are minimized by prohibiting public use of trails when big game are concentrated in the <br />winter (December 1 to April 16), and by prohibiting the cutting of snags except those within the actual <br />disturbed area. <br />Description of the Operation and Reclamation Plans <br />The Bowie No. 1 Mine is an existing underground mine which had been in operation since 1975 but which <br />has creased operations. There are three major disturbed areas within the permit boundary. The original <br />portals east of Steven's Gulch were the site of the main offices, crushing and screening facilities, and <br />storage and warehouse areas. Before reclamation activities began in 2000, the Bowie No. 1 West Mine <br />portals on East Roatcap Creek used to be adjoined by a small maintenance facility, ventilation shaft and <br />water tank. The coal loadout facilities were located adjacent to the North Fork of the Gunnison River <br />along State Highway 133. <br />The Bowie No. 1 West Mine portal facilities in East Roatcap Creek enabled Bowie Resources Limited to <br />access the reserves that had been cut off due to the fire at the main portals. Mining occurred west of the <br />main East Mine during the 1988 to 1993 five-year mine plan. The East Mine portals were rehabilitated <br />during late 1992 and early 1993. The two mines were connected underground in June 1993 and a beltline <br />was used to transport the majority of coal out of the east portals to the crushing and screening facility <br />locatled at the east mine. This precluded the trucking of coal from the west mine portals, which had <br />occurred when the West Mine became operational. The approved plan to construct rock slope tunnels to <br />connect the east and west mines became obsolete with the rehabilitation of the east mine portals. <br />The general direction of mining had been northward to extract coal from the D seam. When mining was <br />active, the coal had moved from the mining face via a continuous haulage system shuttle cars to a <br />feeder-breaker and then out of the east mine via conveyor belt to a surge bin, a screening/crushing facility <br />and a truck loading facility. After mining at the Bowie No. 1 Mine had ceased, BRL periodically would <br />truck coal from the Bowie No. 2 Mine to the Bowie No. 1 Mine storage silos and railroad loadout facility <br />where it was loaded onto trains for shipment to market. However, most of the Bowie No. 1 Mine unit train <br />loadout facilities have been demolished and removed. <br />I <br />Because mining has ceased, there is no predicted production rate for this five-year permit term. The mine <br />utilized the room and pillar mining method of extracting coal. <br />18