c. It is usually desirable to locate the pit within a dominant, 

 homogeneous mature vegetative community. This location will 

 reduce the chance that a terrestrial habitat of limited avail- 

 ability will be affected and will generally increase habitat 



d i vers i t y . 



d. It should be decided during site planning whether or not the 

 pit is to be connected to the river following the mining opera- 

 t i on 



• A pit outlet provides an avenue of escape for fish that 

 become trapped in the pit during high water. A connected 

 pit, if properly designed, can provide fish rearing and 

 overwintering and increase the availability of sport fish. 

 Conditions necessary to provide suitable fish habitat in- 

 clude a diversity of depths with an average depth that mini- 

 mizes the probability of winter mortality. 



• An unconnected pit has the potential to trap fish during 

 high water. If the pit is adequately protected from flooding 

 with a buffer of suitable height, and if the pit is not to 

 be managed for fish the creation of overwintering habitat is 

 not necessary and the average depth is not critical. A diver- 

 sity of water depths is desirable to create adequate water- 

 fowl and shorebird habitat. 



3. Dredging in Active Channels of Large and Medium Rivers 



a. Dredging in active channels of large and medium rivers should 

 be considered only if suitable floodplain sites are unavail- 

 able outside the active channel. In this situation, nonflood- 

 plain sources also should be evaluated. 



b. Sites located in active channels should consider the following: 



23 



II. SITE PLANNING 



