2010-11-16_PERMIT FILE - C1996083A (27)

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I~ ©Rare Earth Science, LLC PO Box 1245 Paonia, Colorado 81428 phone 970/527-8445 dawn®rareeartbsdence.com December 6, 2006 James E. Stover J.E. Stover 8 Associates,lnc. PO Box 60340 Grand Junction, CO 81506 Re: Threatened & Endangered Species Inventory Renewal No. 2 of State Permit No. C-1998-083 Bowie No. 2 Mine, Delta, Colorado Dear James: • This letter and the attached figures report the results of a threatened and endangered (T8E) species inventory Completed by Rare Earth Science, LLC (Rare Earth), for Renewal No. 2 of Bowie #2 Mine Permit No. C-1996-083 issued by the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety (DRMS). The DRMS requested this inventory in a Permit Renewal Application Adequacy Review dated October 17, 2006, and addressed to your client, William A. Bear, Jr., of Bowie Resources, LLC. Bowie #2 Mine is located in Delta County, Colorado, in the Hubbard Creek and Terror Creek drainages of the North Fork of the Gunnison River (North Fork River) watershed (Figure 1). The original permit for Bowie #2 Mine was issued on April 4, 1997. Renewal No. 2 of the Bowie DRMS Permit is a routine renewal: no new areas of surface disturbance and no significant changes to mine activities are proposed. However, a criterion for permit renewal under Rule 2.07.6(2)(n) of the Regulations of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board for Coal Mining (effective August 30, 1980) requires DRMS to make a finding regarding whether permitted activities will affect the continued existence of T&E species or result in destruction or adverse modification of their critical habitat. The purpose of this letter is to update the T&E species analysis for the mine to reflect the current T&E lists (see Table 1, below) issued by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW). Since the time of the original T&E inventory work' performed during the original DRMS permit application process in 1995 and 1996, an additional species (Canada lynx) has been fisted; one species (American peregrine falcon) has been de-listed; and the range for one listed species (southwestern willow flycatcher) has been determined to fall far south of the local watershed in which Bowie #2 is situated.2 Table 1 lists the T&E species required for consideration by this inventory, summarizes ' Summers, Susan A. 1995. Threatened and endangered species survey for Bowie Resources LTD, proposetl coal development, Bowie Colorado. Enviro25 Environmental Services Inc., Grand Junction. November 28. ~ Pfister, Allan R. 2003. Letter [o interested parties announcing the USFWS Grand Junction field office's decision to change the range boundary for the Southwestern willow Flycatcher in Colorado. April 11. ~'ER/tlrT /Z6nrEwBL~Z M2-8o /1 PPRov6~ 7~3 r/p ~.