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<br />. <br /> <br />or less areal coverage. <br /> <br />. Belt transects will be used to determine pre-treatment areal coverage of noxious weeds in <br />the MA. Reclamation will endeavor to reduce noxious weed coverage as much as is <br />possible but feels that a 10% or less areal coverage goal is realistic. <br /> <br />. Unless scoured by a natural flood event or other natural disaster, all habitats within the <br />MA will have a proportional replacement of desirable species where undesirable species <br />have been removed or reduced. <br /> <br />. All areas cleared of Russian olive and tamarisk will be revegetated with native vegetation <br />to include native cottonwood and willow species. <br /> <br />4.2 Monitoring Methods and Reporting <br /> <br />The condition of the livestock exclosure fencing will be monitored and maintained on a routine <br />basis. Livestock trespasses will be corrected in a timely manner. <br /> <br />When streambank stabilization and channel-floodplain restoration measures are implemented, <br />monitoring will be conducted annually to determine the lengths of non-vegetated, eroding banks <br />at each site. A simple pacing method, similar to that used in the 'greenline' method (Winward <br />2000), will be used to measure the lengths of non-vegetated segments at the normal, bankfull, <br />high-water line. <br /> <br />At each site, permanent monitoring segment start and end points will be established. At <br />streambank stabilization sites, only one side of the channel will require monitoring. At the <br />channel-floodplain restoration site, the entire lengths of banks on both sides of the channel will <br />require monitoring. Each year, the lengths of eroding bank at each site will be reported. If the <br />length of eroding bank at a site is observed to be increasing for a period of two consecutive years, <br />or should a major flood event causing substantial bank erosion occur, then corrective <br />maintenance actions (discussed below) will be taken. <br /> <br />The condition of the wetland/riparian plant communities will be monitored with the use of belt <br />transects. Reclamation shall coordinate with independent, third party agencies for the methods <br />used to measure the vegetation and the establishment of transects suitable to the project. The <br />primary uses of the belt transects will be to track plant community species composition; the <br />presence of noxious weeds and other undesirable plant species; and areal cover of vegetation in <br />the tree, shrub, and herbaceous strata. The number and extent of permanent transects will be <br />established in the spring of 2002 prior to initiation of vegetation management activities. These <br />belt transects will be used to monitor mitigation success criteria during the progress of the <br />mitigation program. Vegetation transect measurements shall be completed annually in the spring <br />( early June). <br /> <br />-45- <br />