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2011 HIGH ALTITUDE REVEGETATION SUMMER
FIELD TOUR of Mine Land Reclamation Sites in the
Leadville, Colorado Area Sponsored by the High Altitude Revegetation Committee August 4 and 5, 2011 The
High Altitude Revegetation Committee, through Colorado State University,
invites you to the 37th annual High Altitude Revegetation Summer
Field Tour. These FREE annual Summer Tours give us
a chance to visit various types of disturbed areas and take a close-up look at
reclamation projects in action.
The tour this year will be held in the Leadville, Colorado area and will
focus on mine land reclamation being implemented by the EPA and Climax Mine. On the first day, we will visit sites
south of Leadville along the Arkansas River to view reclamation activities
associated with revegetation of fluvially deposited mine tailings. On the second day, we will be
privileged to tour the Climax Mine located on Fremont Pass north of Leadville to
visit some of their reclamation and revegetation sites. As
always, we invite your family and friends to accompany you. No fees or preregistration is necessary
– just show up Thursday morning before 9:00 a.m., and provide your own
picnic lunches for both days. Come
prepared for both days with personal outdoor items such as jacket, sunscreen,
insect repellent, water, rain gear, hat, appropriate footwear (some type of close-toed
hiking boots are required for the tour of Climax Mine), and a hard hat if you
have one. The Thursday evening dinner
is free, and we will take a final count on Thursday morning to know how many
will attend. Schedule of Events Thursday,
August 4, 2011 8:30
– 9:00 a.m.
Arrival and dinner sign-up. Location: Meet at
the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, 120 W. 9th St., Leadville, CO by
9:00 a.m. Please park in their Convention Center lot which is in back of
the main museum building on 10th Street. We will carpool as much as possible to
reduce the number of vehicles that need to be accommodated at each stop. 9:00
a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Travel to Dr. Bernard Smithﾃ不 property
approximately 5.5 miles south of Leadville (134 County Road 44). To give us some background, Doc Smith
will provide a brief overview of the history and problems associated with fluvial
mine tailing contamination along the Arkansas River and his efforts working
with the EPA to initiate cleanup. At this stop, we will view fluvial tailing
deposits along the river that have been stabilized by the EPA using various in situ techniques and discuss why this
approach was chosen over other options, view test plots conducted by CSU of
willows and other shrubs and discuss their tolerance/suitability for
stabilization of tailing deposits, and view heavy metal contaminated pastures/hay
meadows and discuss remediation techniques such as sampling protocol, amendments,
tillage operations, seed mixes, etc.
The fluvial deposits we will see in the morning were treated in the late
90s. In the afternoon, we will
travel a little farther downstream to view deposits that were treated in
2008-09 using refined techniques such as an Allu mixer to make sure lime and
biosolids amendments were thoroughly incorporated to the full depth of
tailings. We will also be able to
view bank stabilization techniques that are intended to be stable in the
short-term, but deformable in the long-term. The banks were constructed using a small amount of hard
armoring (rock rolls), but the primary source of stability is coir logs and Carex and willow vegetation. 5:00
p.m. – Social Hour and 6:00 p.m. – Dinner. The social hour and dinner will be held
at the Colorado Mountain College Timberline Campus located at 901 South Hwy. 24. Friday,
August 5, 2011 8:30
– 9:00 a.m.
Arrival. Location: Meet once again at the National Mining Hall of Fame
and Museum by 9:00 a.m. (see directions above). We will board buses provided by Climax Mine for the dayﾃ不
activities. Due to safety and liability issues, there will be no personal
vehicles allowed at the mine site, so you must plan to ride on one of the
buses. Close-toed hiking boots are
required. Please bring a hard hat if you have one. 9:00
a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Travel to the Climax Mine on
buses. Four stops are planned at
the mine to view and discuss reclamation/revegetation activities: 1) Storke
Yard, 2) Robinson Tailing Pond – Mike Ellis will discuss reclamation with
biosolids, 3) Eagle Park Reservoir, and 4) Searle Gulch – Ken Carlson
will discuss test plots and results of monitoring study. 3:00
p.m. Tour
Complete. Arrive back in Leadville no later than 3:00 p.m. Please drive home with care or enjoy a beautiful
weekend in the Leadville area. We
would like to invite you to our summer tour in 2011. Please visit our HAR website for more details (www.highaltitudereveg.org). Accommodations/Camping in the Leadville
Area Lodging: Alps
Motel Silver
King Inn & Suites S. Hwy
24 (207 Elm St.) 2020
North Poplar Street Leadville,
CO 80461 Leadville,
CO 80461 Columbine
Inn & Suites Super
8 Delaware
Hotel The Timberline Motel 700 Harrison Ave. 216
Harrison Avenue Leadville, CO 80461 Leadville,
Colorado 80461 Mountain
Peaks Motel 1 Harrison Ave. Leadville, CO 80461 Campgrounds: Leadville RV Corral SUGAR LOAFIN' RV/Campground & Cabins 135 West 2nd Street 2665
County Road 4 There are also numerous Forest
Service campgrounds in the area. Questions regarding the tour should be directed
to: Joe Brummer (970-491-4988, joe.brummer@colostate.edu), Randy
Mandel (303-980-0540, Randy_Mandel@golder.com),
or Mark Paschke (970-491-0760, mark.paschke@colostate.edu). |