Interest in the development of the oil shale reserves of northwestern Colorado has resulted in Garfield County becoming an area of environmental study. Before private industry can begin to extract and process oil shale it must provide baseline environmental information about the areas to be affected by development. Because the town of Grand Valley is located near one of the richest oil shale deposits in the United States, it will certainly be affected by large scale industrial development. The objectives of this study were to provide baseline environmental information on soils, vegetation and wildlife in the vicinity of Grand Valley. Two other reports are currently being prepared by this research team which are useful adjuncts to this study. One is an ecological inventory of adjoining Parachute Creek valley; the other in an ecological impact analysis and mitigation study for a proposed utilities corridor through the same area.