2011-06-02_APPLICATION CORRESPONDENCE - C2010089 (11)

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• • Meehan Draw and includes most of the western portions of the Glasier Property. This land use subcategory occupies a total of 65.46 acres of the site and accounts for 40.0 percent of the "Grazingland" land use and 20.3 percent of the total project area. While this type is dominated by native vegetation, principally Basin Big Sagebrush, it has been used extensively over the years as a winter feeding ground and grazing area and the native vegetation is in a relatively poor ecological condition class. This land use subcategory on the north side of Meehan Draw has extensive piles of old baling twine, indicating extensive and heavy feeding of wintering livestock on these sites. Grazingland - Subirrigated (GL -SI) occupies large portions of the lowest sites associated with Meehan Draw and Chiles Draw, which crosses the northwest portion of the Glasier. This land use subcategory occupies a total of 28.19 acres of the site and accounts for 17.2 percent of the " Grazingland" land use and 8.7 percent of the total project area. This type corresponds to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers definition of wetlands in that these areas are dominated by vegetation adapted to growing in saturated soil conditions. This land use type is dominated by native vegetation and occurs primarily as a byproduct of the extensive amount of flood irrigation which occurs in this area. The tail waters from the irrigated fields up slope of this site flow down the depressional bottoms and result in large areas of wetland vegetation which have become established by sub - irrigation and flood irrigation of these low -lying areas. Grazingland- Reclaimed Spoil (GL -RECS) occurs in the very southern end of the proposed NHN Mine Permit area in the proposed equipment corridor area, wherein the large mine equipment will be moved from the existing N112 Mine Area, once it is reclaimed, to the proposed NUN Mine Area. This area occupies an area of approximately 4.42 acres and accounts for about 2.7 percent of the total "Grazingland" land use and 1.4 percent of the total permit area. This area is distinguished from the previously mentioned Grazingland- Reclamation (GL -REC) land use designation, by the fact that no topsoil was salvaged from this mine area and the area is almost totally dominated by regraded spoil. The vegetation which has become established is primarily a result of voluntary reclamation efforts performed by the previous mine owners and Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Reclamation efforts conducted by the DRMS. Vegetatively this site is largely dominated by shrubs, whereas the Grazingland - Reclamation (GL -REC) consists primarily of a grass dominated vegetation type. Grazingland- Drainage Channel (GL -DC) occurs in the bottoms of the incised drainage channels in Meehan Draw and in the unnamed draw that crosses the southeast corner of the NH1 Mine Site. This site occupies an area containing approximately 0.07 acres and accounts for 0.04 percent of the "Grazingland" land use and 0.02 percent of the total area. This type corresponds to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers definition of a drainage channel, in that these areas are devoid of vegetation and represent incised drainage channels. Pastureland. This land use category is the second largest land use category found in the proposed NHN Mine Area and accounts for a total of 138.23 acres or 42.9 percent of the proposed permit area. There are three different "Pastureland" land use subcategories on this site Section 2.04.3 Page 5 April 2011