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EXHIBIT 5 <br />Inland Saltgrass) on this site was only 1.28 percent, Green Molly accounts for 54.16 percent of <br />the vegetation and Black Greasewood accounts for approximately for 37.95 percent of the <br />composition. Under climax conditions, these composition figures should be approximately 20, <br />15 and 10 percent respectively, thus it can be interpreted that some form of disturbance, almost <br />certainly in the form of livestock grazing on this site has been intensive and has occurred over a <br />prolonged period of time, probably since the days of initial white settlement in the Grand <br />Valley, which according to the BLM draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Red Cliff <br />Mine, occurred in 1882. Due to this historic land use and associated poorly managed livestock <br />grazing practices, the composition of the potential climax vegetation has been altered. During <br />the field vegetation sampling effort there was considerable evidence of cattle grazing as <br />evidence by the old fecal droppings found across the site. Livestock use would typically be <br />highest in the areas irrigated by irrigation tailwater runoff associated with the irrigated Wetland <br />Vegetation type. <br />Adjacent to Reed Wash, the permanent flows of water and associated vegetation in the Riparian <br />Plant Community possess a composition of plants that have relatively higher palatability and <br />are utilized to a higher degree than almost all other portions of the property by grazing animals. <br />The permanent flows of water and associated high water table on the flatter portions of the <br />Reed Wash floodplain have resulted in what can be considered to be an environmental induced <br />plant community, very similar to that of associated with the irrigation runoff areas found <br />downslope of the irrigated pastures found on the western portions of the site. Adjacent to Reed <br />Wash the presence of wetland and other riparian species, especially Reed Canarygrass and Salt <br />Cedar can be explained totally by the presence of the hydrology of this area. Both of these <br />species are highly invasive and occur due to the relatively large amount of irrigation water <br />which flows in this drainage channel. Since these two species occur only in the areas that <br />receive supplemental moisture in the form of irrigation tail water runoff, evidence suggests that <br />the wetland and riparian vegetation found on this site exist in large measure because of the <br />irrigation practices on adjacent areas. <br />The single most important environmental fact which appears to influence the distribution of <br />vegetation on this site, outside of the hydrological factor, appears to be the edaphic factor. The <br />soils on this site appear to be almost totally formed from Mancos shale parent materials. These <br />soils are typically very high in salts and have particularly high Sodium Adsorption Ratios <br />(SAR) and Exchangeable Sodium Percentages (ESP) and have what would be considered to be <br />very heavy or clayed textures. Due to these elevated levels of sodium, only plants with an <br />abundance of moisture, such as deep rooted water loving plants such as Black Greasewood, <br />Grey Molly, Inland Saltgrass and other salt tolerate native plants and introduced annual forbs <br />occur on this site. Most if not all of the native perennial plants which grow in this area would <br />be considered to be salt tolerant species and would be classified as being halophytic species. <br />The permit area was increased in size to 215.6 acres after the vegetation study was complete. <br />Therefore, the ratio of vegetation types to the size of the permit area in the following text are <br />slightly low. However, the small differences do not affect any of the conclusions reached in the <br />vegetation study. <br />8/26/11 <br />