1987-03-10_PERMIT FILE - C1981008A

• Permit No: C1981008A
• IBM Index Class Name: PERMIT FILE
• Doc Date: 3/10/1987
• Doc Name: Application & Table Of Contents
• Media Type: D
• Archive: Yes

NUCLA PR NO. 2
baseline information to satisfy the requirements of the
regulations.
Response:
Peabody has had follow-up conversations with Mr. Frank Morgan of Nucla,
the operator on lands where cropland was identified during baseline
vegetation investigations. Morgan has evidently farmed these lands for
approximately 20 years. Though the identified cropland areas have been
broken out as "cropland" off and on for a number of years, they have not
been managed to achieve a high yield of annual grains . The lands also
are not the best producing lands due to shallow and poor quality soils,
and the affects of poor topographic configuration on irrigation water
management. Ground water "daylights" in areas of the fields because of
shallow confining layers that outcrop, and the quantity of supplemental
ground water from irrigation. On top of this, management inputs have
been at a low level and goals and objectives for the use and management
of the fields have either been ill defined or nonexistent.
Rule 2.04. 10(4) requires plant communities to be described in terms of
various parameters. The criteria for successful revegetation of
cropland is to be based on crop production only, and either reference
areas or other approved standards may be used to evaluate success (Rule
4.15.9) . Therefore, since success criteria is to be based only on
production, the premine cropland area need only be described in terms of
production and the controlling environmental factors. Peabody has
attempted to meet the requirements of Rule 2.04.10(4) to the best of its
ability under the circumstances described. The critical issue of
baseline information for cropland areas applies more to those areas
within the permit area as opposed to the study area. The following
discussion is related to the cropland areas within the permit area:
Morgan estimated barley yields of 60 bushels per acre and winter wheat
yields of 20-25 bushels per acre from the cropland fields within the
permit area. Mr. Zene Weimer, a farm operator from the Nucla area who
applies high levels of management to his lands, was contacted because of
past experience he has had with these fields. Weimer independently
estimated similar production values for these fields. Both operators
indicated that when grain production was not a goal , the fields have
been used for annual pasture, annual hay, or have been left fallow, as
was the case last year. Annual small grains have been used for annual
pasture and hay. Morgan stated that he does not intend to crop these
lands in 1989.
The cropland area soils within the permit area are mostly comprised of
the Progresso complex (map unit 30C) soils at about 92 percent. Within
the complex, the following soil types are represented: 40 percent
Progresso series (Capability Class IIIe) , 40 percent Bond series
(Capability Class VIe) , 10 percent Barx series (Capability Class IIIe) ,
5 percent Travessilla series (capability class VIIs) , and 5 percent
Bowdish series (Capability Class IVe) . The remaining 8 percent of the
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