PERMFILE131196

• Permit No: M1980047
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Section_Exhibit Name: EXHIBIT J VEGETATION
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

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_ EXHIBIT J
:~
VEGETATION
VEGETATION TYPES
The vegetation. of the Parachute Creek area is a complex mosaic
of plant communities. The shrub communities located on the valley
floors ans~ lower slopes are composed of species characteristic
of the Great Basin flora. The Douglas-fir Forest Aspen Woodland,
and Mixed Shrub communities of the uplands are similar to cgmmun-
ities in mountain areas farther east in Colorado; the riparian
woodland community contains elements of the deciduous fozesY
of eastern North America (Reammerer 1974). In the Grand Valley
area, vegetation has been considerably altered by human use:;
indeed, most of the Grand Valley permit area is used pcimari;Iy
as agricultural land.
The following description of present vegetation types is based oh
three baseline:-inventory studies. The first, by Ferchau (1973).,
is entitled, "Vegetative Inventory Analysis and Impact..Study of
the Parachute Creek Area, Garfield County, Colorado," and can
be found in the document The Colony Environmental Study, Parachute
Creek, Garfield County, Colorado (Thorne Ecological Institute,
1973). The second source of vegetation information is by Reammerer
(1974a), entitled, "Vegetation of~Parachute Creek Valley" in' the
document Ecological Studies, Environmental Impact Analysis Appen-
dix 10 (Colony Development Operation 1974). The third source is
also by Reammerer (1974b) entitled "Vegetation of the Grand Valley
Area" in Ecological Studies, Environmental Impact Analysis Appen-
dix 16 (Colony Development Operation 1974). The vegetation maps
of the permit areas (Figure J-land J-3) represent the.;followiiig
:~ vegetation mapping units:
J-1