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SIERRA CLUB . ,o ~.., Pikes Peak Group of the Rocky Mountain Chapter April 27, 2001 Pikes Peak Group of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Sierra Club 522 N. Royer St. Colorado Springs, CO 80903 Reply to: James E. Lockhart 1718 Lorraine St. Apt. B4 Colorado Springs, CO 80906 (719) 385-0045 Christopher A. Arend Natural Resources & Environment Aide 1st Congressional District Office 14000 Glenarm Place, Suite 202 Denver, CO 80202 III IIIIIIIIIIIII III 999 RECcIVED JUN 151001 ~rvision of Minerals and Geology Dear Chris: The attached information is to update you on the threat to the Mexican spotted owl posed by a recent application to expand the Red Canyon quarry in Fremont County. By way of background, the quarry is located on Barrett Road off of Colorado 115 about 15 miles south of Colorado Springs. The quarry has a lease to quarry virtually all of Section 36, a State School Lands section which borders the Beaver Creek Wilderness Study Area. The quarry has operated for years on a private parcel owned by Robert Stack, on a portion of which the federal government has retained minerals rights. In 1997, the quarry obtained an amendment to its permit from the Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG) to quarry the State section. Because a Mexican spotted owl nesting siti; is located in the Beaver Creek Wilderness Study Area a short distance beyond the northern boundary of the State section, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) ,and Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW), and DMG met with Mr. Stack and the quarry operator, Rocky Mountain Materials and Asphalt, on April 30, 1997 to discuss how quarrying could take place without resulting in adverse impacts [o the owls, which are protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The CDOW recommended that the quarry size be limited to 12 acres of disturbance. For reasons which are not clear, DMG chose to disregard this advice and authorized a total size of 40 acres. According to a May 9, 1997 letter from Mr. Stack to the DMG, the quarry envisioned operating within this restriction, with 20 acres of major disturbance, 15 acres of moderate disturbance, and 5 acres of minor disturbance. His letter further states that the quarry had agreed to enter into a habitat coruervation plan (HCP) with regard to the Mexican spotted owl and apparently planned for this HCP to fulfdl the quarry's obligation under the 1997 permit application's Exhibit H Wildlife Information requirement. (According to Construction Materials Rule 6.4.8, this wildlife information must include information regarding threatened and endangered species.) In January 1999, Terry Ireland of USFWS prepared a map showing what is described as a "preferred mining area", stating that as long as the quarry remained to the south of the line drawn, its activities were not likely to affect the owls, but that if the quarry went further into the State section beyond the line, they would have to do a habitat conservation plan. (This preferred area is shown in blue on the enclosed map.) The USFWS line was drawn so that quarrying activities would remain below a ridgeline th the southern pan of Section 36 and leave a "corridor" along the bottom of Red Creek, effectively keeping a hilltop between the quarrying activities and the areas the owls aze most likely using. Beyond the ridgetop, the Red Creek valley expands within Section 36 into what USFWS has described as a "bowl" extending northward