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

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I ~ J.E. Stover 8 Associates, Inc December 6, 2006 Page 3 Breeding Bird Atlas,s Mammals of Colorado a CDOW habitat maps,' U.S. Forest Service (USES) habitat maps,e Colorado Herpetofaunal Atlas,a Amphibians and Reptiles in Colorado,'0 and the Colorado Rare Plant Field Guide." Physical and Ecological Setting The Bowie #2 Mine is an underground coal mine with a permit boundary encompassing 5,286 acres, including a permitted area of surface disturbance of 234.1 acres, within Sections 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, and 16, all in Township13 South, Range 91 West of the 6`" Principle Meridian, and within Sections 33 and 34, in Township 12 South, Range 91 West of the 6`" Principal Meridian, Delta County, Colorado (Figure 1). Approximately 2,612 surface acres within the mine boundary are privately owned and 2,674 surface acres are public lands administered by either the USES or the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (see Figure 2). The Bowie #2 Mine boundary encompasses agently-sloping narrow terrace of undifferentiated Holocene and Pleistocene deposits in the valley of the upper North Fork River at approximately 5,860 feet above mean sea level, rising to steep hills of the upper Cretaceous Mesaverde formation (sandstone, siltstone, and shale) to nearly 8,000 feet in elevation. The majority of the mine's surface disturbance and above-ground activities occur on the lower elevation terrace and on benches on the south-facing slopes of the first tier of steep hills north of the North Fork River. The remainder of the mine boundary area harbors the underground workings of Bowie Mine #2 and numerous methane drainage wells, with their appurtenant surface structures scattered throughout the hills in • the remainder of the permit area. The North Fork River is approximately an eighth-mile south of the mine boundary. Its corridor is vegetated with high-quality mixed stands of native narrowleaf and Rio Grande cottonwoods, willows, and other riparian shrubs. The terrace encompassed by the mine's south boundary is occupied by the old Bowie town site and farmlands, and supports little native vegetation, with the exception of the Fire Mountain Canal, with its somewhat discontinuous corridor of native and naturalized riparian trees and shrubs. The steep foothills in the majority of the mine permit area support mesic and xeric mixed montane shrublands interspersed with pinyon-juniper woodlands. A few small meadows are also present in the high country, as well as several springs, ponds, and seasonal drainages. Stretches of Terror Creek and Hubbard Creek and their narrow riparian corridors traverse the mine permit area from north to south near the west and east boundaries, respectively. The vegetation communities within the mine boundary have been described by others.t'2' s Kingery, H.E. (Editor). 7998. Coloratlo Breeding Bird Atlas. Denver: Co. Bird Alas Partnership & Co. Division of Wildlife. 636 pp. a Fitzgerald, J.P„ C.A. Meaney, D.M. Armstrong. 1994, Mammals of Colorado. Niwot, Colorado: Univ. Press of Co. 467 pp. Habitat maps available at http://ndis.nrel.colostate.edu/intlex.html e U.S. Fores[ Service. 2006. Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, Gunnison National Forests Lynx Habitat Map. Updated February, 2006. e Colorado Herpetofaunal Atlas. Available online at http:!/ndis.nrel.colosta[e.edulherpatlas/coherpatlas/ 10 Hammerson, G.A. 1999. Amphibians and Reptiles in Coloratlo: A Colorado Field Guitle. 2ntl Etl. Denver: University Press of Coloratlo 8 CDOW. 494 pp. " CRPTC (Coloratlo Rare Plant Technical Committee). 1999. Colorado Rare Plant Fieltl Guide. Available at httpalwww.cnh p.colostate.edulrarepla ntslcover. html. '~ Michael Ward Outdoors & Monarch antl Associates. 2003. GVB, monitoring wells, and 8-Seam portal projects: wildlife habitat evaluations and inventory for T&E species, species of high federal andlor state interest, and sensitive species. Prepared for Bowie Resources LTD. June 16. © Rare Earth Science, LLC