Vegetation and Wildlife Surveys at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, South Table Mountain: June 2010 - May 2011

This year-long wildlife and vegetation study was conducted by Walsh Environmental Scientists and Engineers, LLC (Walsh) to update previous vegetation and wildlife baseline reports for the South Table Mountain Site (STM). This baseline report will be used to support future National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analyses. STM is located on the southeastern corner of South Table Mountain in Jefferson County and is home to a laboratory center of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC. For the current effort, Walsh conducted four seasons of vegetation and wildlife surveys beginning in June, 2010 and ending in May, 2011. This report presents the results of these surveys. Prior to the current study, Plantae (2002) completed a site characterization of vegetation communities and noxious weeds, and FORUM (1987) and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC 2005) conducted wildlife surveys including migratory birds and raptors.