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4.0 Vegetation Baseline Sampling Methods <br />The presence of specific vegetation types and communities resulting from intensive <br />agricultural land use and irrigation dictated unique approaches to vegetation baseline sampling <br />within the study area at the proposed New Horizon 2 Mine. Surface mining operations <br />normally occur on native rangelands in the Western U.S., and only rarely involve agricultural <br />lands. General discussions on sampling methodologies and intensities, as well as vegetation <br />type delineations, were carried out with representatives of the Office of Mined Land <br />Reclamation (OMLR) beginning in February 1987. A letter to the OMLR on June 15, 1987 <br />detailed Peabody Coal Company's (Peabody) proposed sampling program for the New <br />Horizon 2 study area. Included in the letter were approximate acreages for the various <br />vegetation or agriculture types and accompanying detailed descriptions of the types and the <br />natural and manmade conditions controlling their expression on the landscape. Sampling <br />parameters and intensity were also proposed in the letter. The OMLR response to this <br />proposal was received on August 11, 1987 and specified concurrence for the sampling <br />techniques proposed for the Irrigated Hayland Type, Irrigated Cropland Type, and the <br />Farmstead, Facilities, Orchards, etc. Questions were raised as to why all parameters (i.e., <br />production, cover, woody plant density) were not sampled for the Irrigated Pasture Type, as <br />well as concern for a lack of adequate sampling intensity in the Swale /Drainage and <br />Rangelands Types. On August 20, 1987 Peabody responded to the OMLR's comments and <br />concerns and provided clarification on several items. Peabody agreed to increase sampling <br />intensity in the Swale /Drainage Type and provided a discussion supporting justification for <br />using ocular cover estimates versus point- intercept cover measurements in the type. <br />Justification for a sampling intensity of 30 samples in the Rangeland Type was also provided in <br />the August 20 letter. It was also brought to the OMLR's attention that the cropland areas <br />within the study area were not going to be cropped during the 1987 growing season. On <br />September 3, 1987 the OMLR responded to Peabody's August 20 correspondence, concurring <br />with the requested sampling intensity in the Rangeland type and the change in cover sampling <br />methodology for the Swale /Drainage Type. Based on the OMLR's comments on the Irrigated <br />Pasture, Peabody completed sampling for all parameters in the type. <br />The issue of reference areas was addressed in both Peabody's and the OMLR's <br />correspondence. It was Peabody's opinion and is WFC's opinion that adequate reclamation <br />August 2013 (PR 08) 2.04.10 -10 <br />