2011-12-22_PERMIT FILE - X201123500 (2)

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2.0 PROJECT DESCRIPTION See Linc Energy Operations permit application. Vegetation and Wildlife Baseline Survey Report Linc Energy Little Snake River Project 1.0 INTRODUCTION This Vegetation and Wildlife Baseline Report was conducted for the Linc Energy Operations, Inc. for the proposed Little Snake River Coal Exploration permit application. Habitat Management, Inc. of Gillette, Wyoming conducted the survey s and prepared this report. 3.0 STUDY AREA The exploration permit application area is located in northwest Colorado approximately 40 miles north of Craig in Moffat County (see Plate 1). State Highway 13 dissects the exploration area. 4.0 VEGETATION The Little Snake River exploration permit area is in the Rolling Sagebrush Steppe (Level IV) ecoregion, which is within the broader Wyoming Basin (Level III) ecoregion. The Wyoming Basin ecoregion is a broad intermontane basin dominated by arid grasslands and shrublands and interrupted by high hills and low mountains. Nearly surrounded by forest covered mountains, the region is somewhat drier than the Northwestern Great Plains to the northeast and does not have the extensive cover of pinyon juniper woodland found in the Colorado Plateaus to the south. The Colorado portion of the Wyoming Basin is bounded on the south by the Roan Plateau, on the east by the Elkhead Mountains, and on the west by Dinosaur National Monument. Much of the region is used for livestock grazing, although many areas lack sufficient vegetation to support this activity. The region contains major natural gas and petroleum producing fields. The Wyoming Basin also has extensive coal deposits along with areas of trona, bentonite, clay, and uranium. The semi -arid Rolling Sagebrush Steppe ecoregion has a continental climate with cold winters and mild summers. The Average annual precipitation is 6 to 16 inches and varies with elevation and proximity to mountains. Potential natural vegetation is mostly sagebrush steppe, with the eastern edge of the region having more mixed grass prairie. Wyoming big sagebrush is the most common shrub with silver and black sagebrush occurring in the lowlands and mountain big sagebrush in the higher elevations. Frequent fires have affected the sagebrush steppe and, in some places, introduced annual brome grasses have replaced it. Most of the land is rangeland, cattle and sheep ranches, or wildlife habitat. Oil, gas, and coal deposits are scattered throughout the region and oil shale deposits are found to the southwest. 4.1 Ecological Systems The Little Snake River exploration permit area is over - whelming (greater than 90% of the total exploration area) within either the Inter - Mountain Basins Big Sagebrush Shrubland or the Big Sagebrush Steppe ecosystem. Both of these dominant systems occur as a matrix community with several other ecological systems intermingled in a mosaic pattern within this big sagebrush matrix. These other ecological systems vary in a patchwork pattern across the landscape in relation to subtle differences in soils and often reflect variation in land use. These other intermingled ecological systems in the exploration permit area include: Wyoming Basins Dwarf Sagebrush Shrubland and Steppe, Juniper Savanna, Habitat Management, Inc. Page 1 December 2011