all three sites large quantities of gravel were removed by shallow scraping 

 surface layers over a broad area. Specifics on these sites are: 



Study site 



Scraped surface area 



Quant i t y of grave I 

 removed 



Ivishak River 

 Kuparuk River 

 Phelan Creek 



40 ha 

 14 ha 

 70 ha 



120,000 m' 



42,000 m^ 



575,000 m' 



Although Phelan Creek was a wide (approximately 1,000 m) unvegetated 

 floodplain, and the Ivishak and Kuparuk Rivers also had extensive unvege- 

 tated gravel bars, the latter two sites also contained numerous islands with 

 densely vegetated shrub thicket stands (Figure 71). At the Ivishak River and 



Figure 71. View of the Ivishak River floodplain looking 

 downstream showing typical braided channel characteristics 

 with extensive gravel bars and isolated, vegetated islands. 



Kuparuk River sites, operators conformed the configuration of their gravel 

 removal areas to avoid the vegetated islands. At the Phelan Creek site, 

 gravel was scraped from a uniformly shaped and contiguous area, because the 

 floodplain was entirely unvegetated within the work area. 



239 



