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time when it is flowering and setting seed. Thus, although conditions might superficially lead one to <br />expect spurge gained ground it may have actually lost some ground due to reduced reproduction and <br />growth due to the dry conditions. On the downside, however, that reduced vigor resulted in reduced <br />effect of herbicide treatment as most herbicides that are used on spurge while avoiding negative <br />effects on grasses require the treated plants to be growing fairly strongly at the time of treatment. If <br />they are not growing strongly then the herbicide is not absorbed and what is absorbed has limited <br />effect. <br />The remaining small Tamarix population treated in previous years continued to hang on to a <br />very meager existence. A late summer search of the entire infested area found only 10 remaining <br />plants. All of those were physically removed by digging them out. At this point it is thought that the <br />infestation has been eliminated, but continued checking for new plants is still required. One of the <br />difficulties at this point in finding the Tamarix plants is that willow, especially in the area of the <br />infestation, has became so large and dominant that even seeing a Tamarix growing among them is a <br />challenge. If the Tamarix is small then it is almost a hopeless task even looking for them. On the plus <br />side, in this year's survey the only plants found were growing in microhabitats where willow was not <br />growing strongly. Whether that was a result of Tamarix being easily seen in weak willow growth and <br />almost impossible to see in strong willow growth remains to be seen. Of the 10 plants found and <br />removed only one was showing signs of vigorous growth. The other 9 plants were not strong plants <br />and based on the presence of dead stems were probably treated previously and recovered somewhat. <br />The one very vigorous Tamarix was probably missed in previous treatments as it showed no <br />evidence of having been impacted by any prior controls. That is why continued examination of the <br />area is important - all it takes is one very vigorous plant that produces a lot of seed to completely re- <br />establish and even expand the original infestation area in less than a decade with even normal <br />growing conditions. <br />Grazing Status: There have been no changes in the plans of the State Land Board to reintroduce <br />grazing to these lands. That does not mean grazing could not be reintroduced in the future, but at this <br />point in time the future use of this land will be for wildlife and recreational uses. The latter is <br />especially incompatible with rangeland uses and if not well managed it can be incompatible with <br />producing quality wildlife habitat. <br />However, there does seem to be a growing interest in increasing the oil and gas production <br />from the Lowry Range as there appears to be some good potential for applying the new horizontal <br />drilling techniques being applied elsewhere with good success. That method though would not <br />impact the stream corridor as the drilling would be quite deep and the well heads in more upland <br />areas similar to the current well installations. <br />2010 Annual Report Coal Creek Wetland Mitigation Permit DA 198811488 Page 4