2014-10-31_PERMIT FILE - C1981044A

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Vegetation Monitorin MCM will implement a monitoring program to evaluate revegetation success to evaluate the effectiveness and status of vegetative reestablishment. Revegetation success evaluations will typically be completed for reclaimed areas during the 3ra year following final reclamation seeding, and in the final two years before release to determine revegetation success. The initial sampling effort (year 3) will use ocular estimation to estimate cover, as the basis for evaluation of the success of initial establishment, and to determine if supplemental seeding or other management actions are needed. Given this approach and its purpose, the initial sampling effort will not be subject to evaluation of sample adequacy. The subsequent revegetation success evaluations will include direct measurement of herbaceous cover and production, assessment of vegetative diversity using the sampling data, and evaluation of shrub density. Herbaceous cover data will be obtained by using the 10 -point frame method. The 10 -point frame will be placed every 5 meters along a 50 -meter transect (randomly located) yielding 100 points per transect. Herbaceous production data will be obtained by clipping - quarter meter - squared quadrat. The quadrats will be placed randomly along the 50 -meter transect. The visually dominant herbaceous species will be clipped by species, while the remaining species in the quadrat will be identified and clipped on the basis of lifeforms. The clipped plant materials will be oven -dried at a temperature of 100 °C for a period of 24 hours and then weighed. Shrub density will be evaluated using a 2 x 50 -meter belt transect. The species within the transect will be recorded and the data used to compute a stems /acre value. Cropland For areas that are used in the production of crops, production will be the only parameter evaluated. The information which forms the basis for this comparison has been obtained from area farmers; records for both hayfields and dryland wheat fields for five growing seasons is presented in Tables 69 and 70, respectively. For the grain crop, average annual production for the five year period is 17.1 bushels /acre. Therefore, when measured production from the reclaimed area equals or exceeds this amount or is 90 percent of 17.1 bushels /acre with a 90 percent statistical confidence, then the area will be considered successfully reclaimed. The cropland success standard will be for the entire field and will be recorded as bushels harvested from the field. The field will be cut and the grains loaded onto trucks and hauled from the site. The trucks will be weighed and their weight will be used in determining the bushel per acre yield after the appropriate lbs /bushel is determined. Similarly, for the irrigated hayland (cropland) located near the No. 5 portal, the combined average production from the North and South Fields (165 acres) will be compared the average production for the two fields of 2,100 lbs /acre obtained from the period of 1979 through 1983, to assess revegetation success. No. 9 Portal Area/Ref ise Pile The No. 9 Portal and Refuse Pile reclaimed areas were reseeded with the Pasture seed -mix at the prescribed rates presented on Table 66, with the intent of returning these areas to pastureland. The adjacent reclaimed areas that were previously returned to pastureland have been seeded primarily with an alfalfa and wheatgrass seed mixture, and will be used as the reference area, as shown on Map 20, Vegetation Map. The same statistical and sample adequacy calculations and revegetation success evaluation approach presented in the following Rangeland/Wildlife Habitat section, will be applied during the sampling process. The revegetation success standard for species diversity will be satisfied if two species make up 70% of the relative percent composition of the reclaimed plant community, with no single species contributing more than 50% of the relative composition. TR14 -36 2.05 -33 Revised 06/23/14