2015-05-12_REVISION - C1981014 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

EFCI submits that this statement misrepresents the site conditions associated with the Southfield Mine and is totally unsupported by the scientific literature as have been previously documented on the subject of woody plants, grass production and livestock weight gain which is usually the only means a landowner has for obtaining revenue on their property. In a classic study on the interaction of grass production and shrub growth, Frischknecht (1963), wrote what is perhaps the classic study on this topic, wherein he summarized three field studies. In his first study, it was found that forage production underneath Rubber Rabbitbrush shrubs averaged 1,548 pounds of grass while grass production, with no shrubs yielded only 958 pounds of forage. In his second study, on lightly grazed pastures, total grass production was 669 pounds on brush free plots and 969 pounds on plots with Rubber Rabbitbrush. In the third study, grass production was 14.0 grams per square foot on plots with Rabbitbrush crown diameters averaging 40 inches across versus 5.9 grams per square foot on plots with no Rubber Rabbitbrush. Examination of these data show that in all instances there was a progressive increase in grass production as the Rubber Rabbitbrush plants increased in crown diameter and density. Grass growth underneath the Rubber Rabbitbrush was in all instances statistically significantly higher than in the areas without shrubs. Big Sagebrush on the other hand reduced grass growth under all conditions. The landowners accusations are totally contrary to these scientific results. EFCI submits that the landowners are unaware of the documented scientific fact that Rubber Rabbitbrush, being one of the very few deciduous shrubs, meaning that it losses all of its leaves every winter and is always documented as an early successional plant, that actually promotes plant growth of nearly all other species while essentially all other woody plant species occurring at the Southfield Mine, inhibit the growth of grass. Rubber Rabbitbrush acts as a nurse plant contrary to the opinions of the landowners. Totally contrary to the landowners statements, if shrubs are required to the planted, then Rubber Rabbitbrush is the single most beneficial shrub to consider planting in connection with the reclamation program at the Southfield Mine. In the landowners e -mail of 18 March 2015, they ask several questions regarding the frequency at which revegetation success standards are changed for coal mines in Colorado. Unfortunately, the CDRMS has made absolutely no attempt to answer any of their questions and it appears that they have put the burden on EFCI to answer. The silence of the CDRMS on this matter is truly regrettable and only appears to confirm the landowners' suspicions, wherein they have repeatedly put in writing that EFCI is trying to avoid their regulatory responsibilities and is asking for special treatment from the CDRMS. The fact is that mining companies routinely ask for their revegetation success standards to be revised. This is the result of several factors, such as increased knowledge regarding the experience of the miners as well as the regulators have for revegetation. Also many of the mines in the State of Colorado were given revegetation success standards by the Division, such as the Southfield Mine that were formulated many decades ago that do not reflect the current regulatory vegetation requirements and were often based upon regulatory assumptions that have been proven to be no longer valid. For example, the Division approved the Southfield Mine Permit vegetation baseline date 1980 without even requiring shrub or tree density sampling, yet they had absolutely no reservations to assign a woody plant density revegetation success criteria. The Division also approved the initial vegetation sampling for the Southfield Mine with the "basal area" vegetation sampling 13