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INTRODUCTION <br />Quantitative sampling of a reclaimed area at Seneca Coal Company’s (SCC) Hayden <br />Gulch Loadout was undertaken in July 2013 by Chenoweth & Associates in <br />cooperation with ESCO Associates to facilitate SCC’s continued interim monitoring of <br />the progress of these areas in relation to revegetation performance standards. <br />Methods, sample areas, and sample sizes were those specified by SCC. <br />METHODS <br />Location and Number of Randomly Located Sampling Sites <br />Randomly located sample sites in 2011 reclaimed area are shown on Map 1. Sampling <br />for cover occurred along five transects randomly located in the 2011 reclaimed area. <br />The HG Loadout Dryland Pasture reference area which would be applicable to the <br />subject area was not sampled in 2013. For purposes of having some reference point, <br />the Sagebrush/Rabbitbrush vegetation data collected at the Hayden Gulch Loadout in <br />1998 for Juniper Coal Company’s Big Elk Project are used as comparison data in this <br />report. <br />Cover Sampling <br />At each sample site, cover data were collected using a point-intercept method in which <br />data were tabulated as interceptions of a point with either a plant species, bare ground, <br />litter, standing dead, or rock. Plant material produced during the current year and still <br />standing was tallied by species. Litter was considered to be any organic material that <br />had fallen, or had begun to fall to the soil surface. Standing dead was any dead plant <br />material that was produced in previous years but which was still standing and had not <br />lodged or broken off to become litter. Inorganic material greater than 1 cm in diameter <br />was considered rock. The cover sampling points were optically projected using a <br />Cover-Point Optical Point Projection Device developed by ESCO Associates. Sampling <br />occurred at randomly located and randomly oriented 50 m transects in reclaimed and <br />reference areas. One hundred points were systematically collected along each <br />transect. At each meter along the 50 m length, points were vertically projected from 0.5 <br />m to the left and 0.5 m to the right of the transect, thus avoiding trampling associated <br />with laying out the transect tape. <br />1 <br />