Colorado Endangered & Threatened Species Protection Guide

WWW.WHITING.COM

L E A D I NG

T HE

WAY

Colorado

Endangered & Threatened Species Protection Guide ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH & SAFETY

SPILLED OIL IMPACTS BIRDS, SMALL MAMMALS, AND OTHER WILDLIFE All species information and photos provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) websites and the following websites: • cpw.state.co.us • gallery.nanfa.org/main.php • cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/SOC-ThreatenedEndangeredList.aspx • nas.er.usgs.gov/default.aspx For more information regarding Colorado please visit: • www.blm.gov/colorado or more information about recommended management practices for reducing oil and gas impacts to wildlife please visit: • www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/contaminants/oilpits.htm

Cleanup of all spilled oil is essential to prevent impact on wildlife.

Prevent drips and spills.

DISCLAIMER Threatened, Endangered, and Candidate species list may change.

For more information please contact Jen Stoelzel at Jen.Stoelzel@Whiting.com Last Update: September 2019

1 / Colorado / Guide to Endangered and Threatened Species Protection

HOW TO AVOID SENSITIVE SPECIES CONFLICTS Minimize disturbance by: • Keeping your vehicle on existing roads and project areas • Only disturb vegetation or soil if necessary, after a pre-activity survey has been conducted, and ensure that habitat degradation will not occur • Integrate habitat enhancement during the reclamation process • Do not attract wildlife • Do not leave food wrappers or scraps on ground • Do not ever feed wildlife • Keep open pits fenced or provide escape ramps • Avoid injuring plants or animals by: • Checking for wildlife under vehicles • Obeying speed limits • Do not hunt, kill, harm, or harass any wildlife at a work site • Do not take, transport, possess, or sell any endangered, threatened, or candidate species of wildlife • Do not damage or destroy an endangered plant • Avoid damaging or removing vegetation • Report dead or injured eagles to the local Fish & Wildlife office • For more information visit: https://www.fws.gov/midwest/eagle/permits/index.html • Avoid wetland margins (the edge of wetland vegetation) by 110 yards. Doing so will likely alleviate many impacts associated with habitat disturbance, destruction, and degradation • During road construction, culverts should be used to prevent damming or funneling of water that normally would reach a wetland basin • During spring and summer, young animal encounters in urban areas, mountains and the plains are common. In all cases: leave them alone! They may seem to be abandoned but usually they’re not and they are better off left alone • If you find a dead doe by the side of the road with a nearby fawn, remember it is illegal to take it into your home. Call a licensed rehabilitator if you feel the need.

For a list of licensed wildlife rehabilitators, visit cpw.state.co.us/Documents/ RulesRegs/SpecialLicenses/WildlifeRehabilitation/PublicRehabListing.pdf • Hunters and fisherman please remember to pick up your waste monofilament lines, empty shotgun shells, and brass. Visit cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/ hunt.aspx for specific details

Environmental, Health and Safety / www.Whiting.com / 02

Photo Credit: USFWS

Photo Credit: USFWS

Boreal Toad

Burrowing Owl

Bufo boreas boreas

Athene cunicularia

Federal Status: Not Listed

Federal Status: Not Listed

State Status: Endangered

State Status: Threatened

This toad has warty skin, oval parotoid glands, and often a distinctive middorsal stripe. This species has no vocal sac and therefore, no mating call.

The Burrowing Owl is a small grounddwelling diurnal owl with bright yellow eyes, long legs, and a unique characteristic bobbing behavior when disturbed. Burrowing Owls range in length from 7-10 inches and have brown and buffy-white spotted feathers with buffy-white eyebrows.

Habitat: The Boreal Toad inhabits a variety of wet habitats, including marshes, wet meadows, stream, beaver ponds, glacial kettle ponds, and lakes interspersed in forest. The ideal habitat for a Boreal Toad is between elevations of 8,000-11,500 feet.

Habitat: Burrowing Owls prefer habitats within deserts, grasslands, and shrub-steppe. They utilize welldrained, level to gently sloping areas characterized by sparse vegetation and bare ground such as moderately or heavily grazed pasture. They prefer short grass for nesting but will forage over areas of tall vegetation.

3 / Colorado / Guide to Endangered and Threatened Species Protection



DID YOU KNOW?

“Threatened” A species that is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future.

“Endangered” A species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

“Proposed” A species that is proposed in the Federal Register to be listed under section 4 of the Act.

Photo Credit: USFWS

Photo Credit: USFWS

Greater Sage-Grouse

Bonytail

Centrocercus urophasianus

Gilia elegans

Federal Status: Proposed Threatened

Federal Status: Endangered

State Status: Special Concern

State Status: Endangered

The Greater Sage-Grouse is a large, chicken-like bird found in open sagebrush plains. They are grayish in color, with a black belly, and have a long tail with spiky feathers and yellow air sacs. Females are duller in color and blend in with the surrounding habitat. Males gather in leks (mating grounds) to court females, typically in late February to April. Only a few dominant males breed and their mating behaviors are uniquely complex.

The Bonytail fish is dark on top and light below. It can reach 24 inches in length, has a green-gray back with lighter sides, and a white belly. It is now the rarest of the endemic bigriver fishes of the Colorado River.

Habitat: This fish typically lives in large, fast-flowing, waterways of the Colorado River system. They prefer backwaters with rocky or muddy bottoms and flowing pools.

Habitat: Sage-Grouse are found only in areas where sagebrush is abundant at altitudes of 6,000-8,500 feet. For more information visit: cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/Greater SagegrouseConservationPlan.aspx Environmental, Health and Safety / www.Whiting.com / 4

Photo Credit: USFWS Photo Credit: USFWS

Photo Credit: USFWS

Black-Footed Ferret

Whooping Crane

Mustela nigripes

Grus americana

Federal Status: Endangered

Federal Status: Endangered

State Status: Endangered

State Status: Endangered

The Black-Footed Ferret is of the weasel family. It is 18-22 inches long with a 4-6-inch tail. In color, they are yellowish brown above, with a blackish wash on the back, black feet, face mask, and a black-tipped tail.

The Whooping Crane’s body and wing feathers are white except for the tips of the wings which are black, it has a large distinctive red patch of skin on the head and bill. They also have bright yellow eyes and thin black legs. It has a wing span of about 7 feet and can be up to 5 feet tall.

Habitat: Their habitat includes the eastern plains, mountain parks, the western valleys, grasslands, and shrub lands that support some species of prairie dog – the ferret’s primary prey.

Habitat: They primarily reside in wetlands, marshes, mudflats, wet prairies, and fields. They are omnivores and primarily feed on crustaceans, small fish, insects, amphibians, and reptiles.

Suckermouth Minnow Phenacobius mirabilis Federal Status: Not Listed State Status: Endangered A slender minnow, the Suckermouth often has a darker-horizontal stripe running from the head to the end of the caudal peduncle. A conspicuous dark spot is located at the end of this lateral stripe. The fish is darker above this strip and white below the stripe. Adults range in size from 2-5 inches in length.

Habitat: The Suckermouth Minnow is usually found in riffle areas of warm prairie streams of all sizes with low to moderate currents and year-round flows. The fish lives on the riffle bottoms in both mid-channel and side-channel areas.

5 / Colorado / Guide to Endangered and Threatened Species Protection

Photo Credit: USFWS

Photo Credit: USFWS

Wolverine Gulo gulo

Gunnison SageGrouse

Federal Status: Not listed

Centrocercus minimus

State Status: Endangered

Federal Status: Proposed Endangered

Adult males weigh 26-40 pounds and adult females weigh 17-26 pounds.

The Wolverine resembles a small bear with a bushy tail. It has a round, broad head; short, rounded ears, and small eyes. They have 5 toes on each foot, with curved and semi retractile claws used for digging and climbing.

State Status: Special Concern

Habitat: Wolverines do not appear to specialize on specific vegetation or ecological habitat aspects, but instead select areas that are cold and receive enough winter precipitation to reliably maintain deep persistent snow late into the warm season.

Deep, persistent, and reliable spring snow cover (April 15 – May 14) is the best overall predictor of wolverine occurrence.

These birds are about one-third smaller than the Greater Sage-Grouse, and males have more distinct, white barring on their tail feathers with longer and denser filoplumes on their necks. Female Gunnison and female Greater Sage-Grouse have nearly the same plumage, but the female Gunnison is again, about one-third smaller than the Greater Sage-Grouse.

Male Gunnison Sage-Grouse conduct an elaborate display when trying to attract females on breeding grounds or leks in the spring.

Habitat: Gunnison Sage-Grouse require a variety of habitats such as large expanses of sagebrush with a diversity of grasses and forbs, and healthy wetland and riparian ecosystems. It requires sagebrush for cover and for fall and winter food. For more information visit: www.cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/ unnisonSagegrouseConservationPlan. aspx.

Environmental, Health and Safety / www.Whiting.com / 6

Photo Credit: USFWS

Photo Credit: USFWS

Colorado Pikeminnow

Gray Wolf

Ptychocheilus lucius

Federal Status: Endangered

Federal Status: Endangered

State Status: Endangered

State Status: Threatened

The Gray Wolf, being a keystone predator, is an integral component of the ecosystems to which it typically belongs. The wide range of habitats in which wolves can thrive reflects their adaptability as a species.

These fish have been known to reach 6 feet in length and 80 pounds in weight. Adult fish may be green-gray to bronze on their backs and silver to white along their sides and ventral.

Recovery efforts are focused on operating dams to create a natural flow pattern and restricting stocking of nonnative fish to reduce ecological interactions.

Habitat: They are currently found in the Green, Yampa, White, Colorado, Gunnison, San Juan, and Dolores rivers. They thrive in swift flowing muddy rivers with quiet, warm, backwaters.



Canis lupus

Habitat: Wolves can thrive in a diversity of habitats from the tundra to woodlands, forests, grasslands, and deserts. Historically, the range of the gray wolf covered over two-thirds of the United States.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) prohibits a person from “taking” threatened and endangered species.

“Take” is defined as: to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.

If any person or entity knowingly violates any provision of the Act, they will be subject to civil penalties and/or criminal charges.

7 / Colorado / Guide to Endangered and Threatened Species Protection

Photo Credit: USFWS

Photo Credit: USFWS

Least Tern

Colorado Butterfly Plant

Sterna antillarum Federal Status: Endangered State Status: Endangered The Least Tern is the smallest of the North American terns. With a length of approximately 9 inches and a wingspan of about 20 inches, this Tern has a light buoyant flight, giving it the appearance of being very delicate on the wing.

Habitat: The preferred nesting habitat is on sandy or pebbly beaches, well above the water line, around lakes and reservoirs or on sandy soil sandbars in river channels.

Gaura neomexicana ssp. coloradensis Federal Status: Threatened State Status: Not Listed The Colorado Butterfly Plant is a member of the evening primrose family and is a short-lived perennial herb with one to several reddish, pubescent stems that are 2–3 feet tall.

Habitat: It is a regional endemic restricted to Laramie and Platte counties in Wyoming, and to Larimer, Jefferson, and Weld counties in Colorado.

Southwestern Willow Flycatcher Empidonax traillii extimus Federal Status: Endangered State Status: Endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatchers have brown-olive upperparts and are darker on the wings and tail. Breeding occurs during May to June and second clutches only occur if the first clutch failed. They typically lay between 2-5 eggs per clutch.

Habitat: They are found most frequently in riparian habitats, especially in areas of dense willow. The flycatcher is difficult to distinguish from other related species, though its territorial song is distinctive.

Environmental, Health and Safety / www.Whiting.com / 8

Photo Credit: NANFA

Photo Credit: USFWS

Common Shiner

Ute Ladies’-Tresses

Luxilus cornutus

Spiranthes diluvials

Federal Status: Not Listed

Federal Status: Threatened

State Status: Threatened

State Status: Not Listed

This Shiner is silver in color, with a darker olive-like hue on its back and a dark stripe down its dorsal fin. They typically reach 2-4 inches in length.

This plant is a perennial, terrestrial orchid with stems 8-20 inches tall arising from tuberously thickened roots. Its narrow, 0.39-inch leaves can reach 11 inches long. Basal leaves are the longest and become reduced in size up the stem. The flowering stalk can consist of a few to many small white or ivory flowers clustered into a spike arrangement at the top of the stem.

Habitat: Adults inhabit rocky pools near riffles in clear, cool creeks and small to medium rivers. They sometimes occur in lakes in northern part of range.

Habitat: Found in sub-irrigated alluvial soils along streams and open meadows in floodplains at elevations of 4,500-6,800 feet.



DID YOU KNOW?

The redbelly dace is an important environmental indicator of river and stream health as they prefer clean, unpolluted waters. They use their vision to find food, so a habitat of clear water is necessary for their survival.

09 / Colorado / Guide to Endangered and Threatened Species Protection

DISCLAIMER The species that are listed in this brochure are threatened, endangered, or a candidate species in the counties in which Whiting operates. Therefore, these species may or may not be threatened, endangered, or candidate species in other counties in Colorado or other states in the U.S.

Northern Photo Credit: Tony Terceira Photo Credit: USFWS

Grizzly Bear Ursus arctos

Southern Photo Credit: USFWS

Federal Status: Threatened State Status: Endangered The Grizzly Bear is the largest of North American terrestrial carnivores. Grizzly Bears are unmistakable because of their large size (up to 7 feet long and weighing 500 pounds or more). Their front claws are over 4 inches long and their fur is mostly yellowish to reddish brown.

Habitat: Once they occurred throughout Colorado, and they apparently were fairly common in the western three-fifths of the state at least until the turn of the century.

Redbelly Dace Chrosomus eos Federal Status: Not Listed State Status: Endangered The Southern Redbelly Dace (Phoxinus erythrogaster) is typically about 2 inches in length with black stripes and a silver color in-between. The males have red or yellow stripes near their underbelly during breading seasons.

The Northern Redbelly Dace (Phoxinus eos) is also about 2 inches long and it has two long stripes along its sides under a sliver back. The lower side of its body is white, yellow, or silver.

During mating season, the males’ lower sides turns a bright red.

Habitat: The Redbelly Dace is often commonly found near the sources of springs. There is a small isolated population in Colorado.

Environmental, Health and Safety / www.Whiting.com / 10

Photo Credit: USFWS

Photo Credit: USFWS

River Otter

Razorback Sucker

Lontra canadensis

Xyrauchen texanus

Federal Status: Not Listed

Federal Status: Endangered

State Status: Threatened

State Status: Endangered

As one of nature’s most social and playful creatures, the River Otter is a more-highly active member of the weasel family. They have big appetites and often eat fish, frogs, and crawfish.

The Razorback Sucker has a sharpedged bulge on the anterior part of its back between the head and dorsal fin.

The fish can reach up to 3 feet and 13 pounds in size.

Habitat: Otters are often found in ponds, streams, and lakes. They will establish burrows near water’s edge in rivers, streams, or lakes. The burrows have tunnels and often an exit into water.

Habitat: Razorback Suckers inhabit a diversity of areas from mainstream channels to backwaters of medium and large stream or rivers. They prefer to live in mud or gravel bottoms. Razorbacks feed on algae, insect larvae, plankton, and detritus.

Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse Zapus hudsonius preblei Federal Status: Threatened State Status: Threatened They are stunning, yellowish-brown mice with pure white bellies and a prominent buff stripe on each side. These animals are about 10 inches long, of which more than half is the thin, nearly naked tail.

Habitat: The Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse occurs in the mountains where the edge of the Great Plains meets the Rockies. Typical habitat is comprised of well-developed plains riparian vegetation with undisturbed grassland communities and a nearby water source. The Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse’s diet changes seasonally and consists of insects, seeds, fungus, fruit, and more.

11 / Colorado / Guide to Endangered and Threatened Species Protection

Photo Credit: USFWS

Lesser PrairieChicken

Photo Credit: USFWS

Tympanuchus pallidicinctus

Kit Fox

Federal Status: Threatened

Vulpes macrotisi

State Status: Threatened

Federal Status: Not Listed

This bird is a medium-sized, grayishbrown grouse. Dark bands on upperparts are complex, including black and cinnamon tones; light bands on upperparts range from buff to white. Upperparts are therefore darker and more richly colored than underparts. The chin and throat are largely unmarked, and the tail is short, rounded and brownish black.

Tail short, rounded, and brownish black in color. Males display a bright yellow eye-comb above the eyes and dull red esophageal “air sacs” on the side of the neck during courtship.

State Status: Endangered The Kit Fox is a small mammal of the southwest desert weighing only 3-6 pounds. They closely resemble Swift Foxes, found on the eastern plains of Colorado, but have larger ears and a more angular appearance.

Habitat: They have long black-tipped bushy tails, dark muzzles, and a yellowgray grizzled coat. They typically reach 3.5-5 pounds, making them about the size of a full-grown jackrabbit.

Habitat: The Lesser Prairie-Chicken is listed as “threatened” in Colorado, with the population estimated at fewer than 500 breeding birds. The range of Lesser Prairie-Chickens in Colorado includes southern Baca County on the US Forest Service Comanche National Grasslands, both native rangeland and land enrolled in the conservation reserve program in eastern Prowers, Kiowa, and Cheyenne counties.

Environmental, Health and Safety / www.Whiting.com / 12

Photo Credit: USFWS

Photo Credit: USFWS

Greenback Cutthroat Trout

Lake Chub

Oncorhynchus clarki stomias

Federal Status: Not Listed

Federal Status: Threatened

State Status: Endangered

State Status: Threatened

The Lake Chub grows to about 4 inches long and its back is olivebrown or dark brown, and the sides are silver. The snout is blunt, and some breeding males have bright orange at the base of their fins.

Greenback Cutthroat Trout are cold water fish belonging to the trout, salmon, and whitefish family. They have dark, round spots on the sides and tail and two colorful blood-red stripes on each side of the throat under the jaw, hence the name “cutthroat”. During the spring spawning season, the entire belly may become crimson red.

Couesius plumbeus

Habitat: The Lake Chub is commonly found in lakes but can also be found in rivers or streams – they prefer cool waters.

Habitat: This species inhabits cold water streams and cold-water lakes with adequate stream spawning habitat present during spring.

SUCCESS STORY For reasons unknown, the Lynx is believed to have disappeared from Colorado by 1973 and then listed as endangered in 1976. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife began a reintroduction plan in 1999 by releasing 96 lynx from Alaska and Canada into Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. By 2006, Colorado’s lynx population had grown to over 200 and is on track to continue growing as strategies are put in place to monitor their occurrence, distribution, and activity.

013 / Colorado / Guide to Endangered and Threatened Species Protection



DID YOU KNOW

• There are 15 national forests within the state of Colorado, 42 state parks, 4 national parks, 8 national monuments, and 2 national grasslands.

• Abundant nesting and migrating birds and other native animals provide a “world-class” watchable wildlife experience. Bald Eagles and other raptors, Sand Hill cranes, shore birds and water birds can be seen seasonally at San Luis Lakes near Alamosa. Colorado is second in the nation for variety of birds. www.coloradodirectory.com/funfacts

Photo Credit: USFWS

Photo Credit: USFWS

Piping Plover

Humpback Chub

Charadrius melodus circumcinctus

Gila cypha

Federal Status: Threatened

State Status: Threatened

State Status: Threatened

The Humpback Chub is green to silver and white in color with an abrupt hump behind the head. They grow to about 18 inches in length.

Federal Status: Endangered

At about 7.25 inches in length, this plover is often described as being the color of dry beach sand or a pale gray-brown.

Habitat: Its nesting habitat in Colorado is on sandy lakeshore beaches, sandbars within riverbeds, or even sandy wetland pastures. An important aspect of this habitat is sparse vegetation; the Plover depends on its coloration for camouflage and protection.

Habitat: They can be found in deep, canyon-bound portions of the Colorado River system such as Black Rocks, Westwater Canyon, and the Yampa Canyon inside Dinosaur National Monument.

Environmental, Health and Safety / www.Whiting.com / 14

Photo Credit: Getty

Photo Credit: USGS

Lynx

Arkansas Darter

Lynx canadensis

Etheostoma cragini

Federal Status: Threatened

Federal Status: Candidate

State Status: Endangered

State Status: Threatened

The Lynx is a large, bob-tailed cat.

It can grow up to 3 feet long and has a black-tipped tail that is only about one-eighth the total length and only about half the length of its huge hind foot. The coat is grayish with obscure spots. The magnificent ear tufts may be nearly as long as the actual ears.

The Arkansas Darter is a small, 2.5 inch fish native to portions of the Arkansas River basin. Its upper body is brown, and its back has many fine, black specks. Its body has 12-14 dusky stripes along the sides. Its belly is nearly white, except in breeding males in which it becomes bright orange.

Habitat: The Lynx is found in dense subalpine forests, willow-choked corridors along mountain streams and avalanche chutes; the home of its favored prey species, the snowshoe hare.

Habitat: The Arkansas darter prefers shallow, clear, cool water, sand or silt bottom streams with spring-fed pools, and abundant rooted aquatic vegetation.

Plains Minnow Hybognathus placitus Federal Status: Not Listed State Status: Endangered The Plains Minnow is similar to the Western Silvery Minnow, they are so similar that Photo Credit: NANFA the two can only be told apart after making a dissection and examining a certain bone in the head. The Plains Minnow is partly herbivorous and has a long gut and black-lined body cavity. The maximum length of adults is 5 inches.

Habitat: Plains Minnows prefer main channel areas with some current. Not much is known about this species, they eat aquatic plants, probably algae, and likely spawns in the spring. Their eggs are probably scattered over silt-bottomed backwaters.

15 / Colorado / Guide to Endangered and Threatened Species Protection

Photo Credit: USFWS Photo Credit: USFWS

Mexican Spotted Owl

Rio Grande Sucker

Strix occidentalis lucida

Catostomus plebius

Federal Status: Threatened

Federal Status: Not Listed

State Status: Threatened

State Status: Endangered

They have dark eyes and an ashychestnut brown color with white and brown spots on its abdomen, back, and head. Their brown tails are marked with thin white bands. They are exclusively nocturnal hunters and eat wood rats, mice, voles, rabbits, gophers, bats, birds, reptiles, and arthropods.

This is a stout fish with a large head and broad snout. Adults are dusky to dark greenish brown dorsally and faded yellow or white on the belly.

Breeding males are dark dorsally with a red lateral stripe and white bellies.

Habitat: They can be found in forested mountains and canyons in southern Utah, Colorado, and mountains of Arizona, New Mexico, west Texas and into the mountains of northern and central Mexico.



Habitat: This species is found in areas near rapidly flowing water. During the day they tend to stick to backwaters or banks that are adjacent to fast moving water as a holding area and they move to swifter water at night. The Rio Grande Sucker feeds on diatoms, detritus, and aquatic invertebrates.

DID YOU KNOW

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) embarked on a Comprehensive Review of the State Wildlife Action Plan that was approved by the USFWS in 2006. The review was completed in September 2015. www.cpw.state.co.us/aboutus/Pages/StateWildlifeActionPlan.aspx

Environmental, Health and Safety / www.Whiting.com / 16

Photo Credit: USFWS

Photo Credit: USFWS

Plains Sharp-Tailed Grouse

North Park Phacelia

Tympanuchus phasianellus jamesii

Federal Status: Endangered

Federal Status: Not Listed

The purple uncoiling, flowering stems of the North Park Phacelia are members of the waterleaf family (Hydrophyllaceae). It is found in North Park of north central Colorado, near the small town of Walden. The bright purple flowers and lobed leaf margins make this species easy to spot in July and August. The plant is a biennial, surviving for one year as a rosette of leaves before flowering and dying the following year.

State Status: Endangered Adult birds have a shorter tail with two central, square-tipped feathers in the center. Their plumage is mottled dark with light browns over white feathers. Their underparts are lighter with v-shaped markings on their bellies. The males have yellow combs over their eyes, purple neck patches, and yellow to orange colored air sacs.

Habitat: Occurs in gambel oak and other shrublands lacking conifers.

Croplands and riparian areas are also used, especially in fall and winter.

Leks (mating grounds) are located in wet meadows, ridges and knolls, or recently burned areas.

Phacelia formosula State Status: Not listed

Habitat: The plant grows and thrives on barren exposures of the Coalmont Formation that are easily eroded, poorly vegetated, have steep-sided ravines, and low sandy hills and bluffs in elevations of 8,000-8,500 feet.

17 / Colorado / Guide to Endangered and Threatened Species Protection

Photo Credit: USFWS

Brassy Minnow Hybognathus hankinsoni Federal Status: Not Listed State Status: Threatened The Brassy Minnow ranges in length between 2.5-3 inches and can be identified by its brassy side coloration, cream underbelly, and olive green back.

A green-gold lateral stripe runs from its gill cover to its notch tail fin.

Habitat: The Brassy Minnow typically lives in cool, slow moving steams that have sand, mud, or gravel bottoms overlaid with organic sediment. The water can be clear or turbid and this fish can be found in stream channels, back waters, and beaver ponds. The Brassy minnow are herbivorous and feed mainly on diatoms and other algae which it scrapes from the bottom or off of aquatic vegetation.

Environmental, Health and Safety / www.Whiting.com / 18

WHAT YOU CAN DO As a Whiting employee, contractor, or visitor, you are responsible for protecting wildlife and the environment. Your participation is essential. Each employee, contractor, and visitor should be familiar with the measures that are listed below: • Learn to identify potentially sensitive habitats • Understand what species inhabit your area, the habitat types and where they occur • Keep your vehicle on existing roads and observe the posted speed limit • Remove food and solid wastes from project sites • No firearms are permitted on Whiting property or in company vehicles (Whiting Policy) • Clean up oil, produced water, and chemical spills • Keep well cellars covered and drained to protect wildlife • Use belt guards, screens, lids, or netting to protect wildlife from moving equipment and tanks • Contact Colorado Parks and Wildlife immediately if injured or dead wildlife are observed on site • All containers and vent stacks must be closed, netted, or screened • Never purchase products made from threatened or endangered species • Respect the lease owner’s property • Coordinate drilling activities to minimize impacts to wildlife during migration and breeding seasons • Use closed containment systems to collect oil field produced water. For more information visit: www.blm.gov/about/laws-and-regulations For more information on T & E species visit:: www.blm.gov/programs/fish-and-wildlife/threatened-and-endangered/state-te-data

Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation Environmental, Health and Safety 1700 Lincoln Street Suite 4700 Denver, CO 80203 www.Whiting.com