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Woody Plant Density <br />BACKGROUND DENSITY <br />The 2013 data from the 2006 Reclaimed Area indicate the average presence of 1452.8 woody plant <br />stems per acre (Table 3). This background level easily exceeds the standard of 200 stems per acre. In <br />the 2011 Reclaimed Area the number for woody plants was only 149.7 stems per acre (Table 5). This <br />background level falls just short of the standard of 200 stems per acre, but within the 90% confidence <br />limit, as seen in Figure 3. <br />SHRUB CONCENTRATION AREA DENSITY <br />Table 17 contains the data resulting from the sampling of shrub concentration area (Block BB) at the <br />Seneca IIW Mine in 2013. Average shrub density was 6191.76, and far exceeds 90% of the current <br />shrub density standard (1800 stems per acre), as seen in Figure 3. As regards the overall observations <br />within the 2006 reclaimed area, 4 of the 11 random samples exceeded 1800 stems per acre suggesting <br />that slightly over 1/3 of area could have shrub development sufficient to meet the concentration area <br />standard. <br />Species Diversity and Composition <br />The data illustrated in Figure 5 show that the 2011 Reclamation (the youngest) has the greatest amount <br />of annual /biennial plant cover and that the proportion of vegetation cover comprised of these plants is <br />distinctly less as reclamation age increases. The 2006 annual /biennial cover (7 -year old vegetation) is <br />less than half of the 2011 Reclamation (2 -year old vegetation). Using the Figure 5 illustration as typical, <br />cover by native perennial forbs makes a substantial increase ( -5x) in cover over the period of maturation <br />from age two to age seven. <br />The distribution of species density by lifeform (Figure 4) shows that the 2006 and 2011 Reclaimed Areas <br />are more similar to the reference areas than would appear to be the case from the lifeform distribution of <br />relative cover (Figure 5). This is important in that it shows that the basic components of the original <br />ecosystem have indeed been returned and that it is a matter of relative proportions and successional <br />status that separates the reclaimed from the native vegetation. Perhaps the largest difference with regard <br />to species density is in the native perennial fortis category, where the aspen native area has more <br />species per 100 sq.m. In addition, the young reclaimed areas tend to have more introduced <br />annual /biennial and introduced annual grasses per 100 sq.m.. <br />Sample Adequacy <br />A summary of sample adequacy calculations for the parameters of cover, herbaceous production, and <br />woody plant density is presented in Table 15 (Appendix 1). As can be seen in this table, the 2006 <br />Reclaimed Area as well as all Extended Reference Area data sets for cover achieved sample adequacy <br />13 <br />