during the mining operation. These islands were heavily vegetated with 

 willow thickets averaging 1.2 m in height. These islands comprised approx- 

 imately 35 ha of the site. Stripping of 0.15 m of overburden was necessary 

 in these vegetated areas. In addition, approximately 150 m of incised flood- 

 plain bank and 1.2 to 1.6 ha of adjacent tundra were removed from the north- 

 east side of the floodplain to expose gravel deposits. Also, within the 

 active floodplain, debris and soil from vegetated islands were pushed into a 

 long narrow overburden pile (approximately 450 m in length) in the middle of 

 the material site to expose underlying gravel deposits. The water table was 

 encountered at about 0.75 m below vegetated sand bars with seasonal frost 

 present in the floodplain and permafrost encountered at depths of 0.9 to 

 2.4 m in adjacent terraces. It does not appear that this material site was 

 shaped, contoured, or rehabilitated in any way following gravel removal. 

 Various aspects of this site are shown in Figures 2 and II. 



Washington Creek . Washington Creek is a small, sinuous creek which 

 originates in the foothills of the Kigluaik Mountains at an elevation of 

 about 265 m and flows through a wide, V-shaped val ley for about 15-km before 

 entering the Sinuk River. The study site is approximately 5 km from the 

 mouth at an elevation of about 105 m. 



This study site consists of two gravel removal areas approximately 

 1,000 m apart on Washington Creek. Both areas were developed between I960 

 and 1963 during construction of the Nome-Teller Highway. The lower site 

 was still being used in 1978 to supply gravel for road maintenance. 



Gravel at both sites was removed by scraping the Washington Creek 

 floodplain and the alluvial fan deposits formed near the confluences of 

 two unnamed tributaries of Washington Creek. A reported 8,000 m of ma- 

 terials were removed from I ha in the upstream site, while 41,000 m had 

 been removed from 2 ha in the downstream site. 



Clearing of large amounts of overburden was required for the devel- 

 opment of both sites. Overburden was not removed from the material sites 

 but was collected into large mounds which were still present at the time 



39 



