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6.16 Irrigated Cropland Reference Area <br />Up to Permit Revision 08, the standards for revegetation of Irrigated Cropland were based on <br />accounts from local farmers combined with analysis from the NRCS office in Montrose, CO. <br />The standard was 1.84 tons per acre for the 15` cutting. In 2011, the Office of Surface Mining <br />challenged the validity of this technical standard for irrigated cropland revegetation success. <br />Therefore, as part of Permit Revision 08, WFC is replacing the technical standard with an <br />irrigated cropland reference area. This reference area is located on the same property as the <br />vast majority of the irrigated cropland that will be disturbed by mining, has the same soils, had <br />the same pre mine vegetation, and will receive the same management. It can be seen on Map <br />2.05.4(2)(e)-3. <br />7.0 Summary of Pre -Mine Vegetation Areas <br />For Permit Revision 06 in 2009, a slight change to the permit boundary was made, resulting in <br />a new total permit area of 827.44 acres. Also, as mentioned previously in this section, there <br />were a number of tracts that were re-classified due to the prime farmland soils designation in <br />2008. There were other practical changes in naming of the areas. All updated vegetation types <br />are shown on the revised Map 2.04.10, which also now has the aerial image of the area from <br />1998. The vegetation types are the same as the pre -mine land use types, which are shown on <br />Map 2.04.3. <br />A summary of the revised vegetation and land use types is included on the following page <br />These are the same as the land use areas outlined in Section 2.04.3. <br />August 2013 (PR 08) 2.04.10-94 <br />