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3.0 RESULTS <br />3.1 Old Peabody Sage Reference Area <br />The Old Peabody Sage Reference Area is comprised of approximately 5.9 acres located to the north <br />of the New Horizon permit area (Map 3). Soils in this area are Pinon / Ustic Torriorthents (Unit 78 on <br />NRCS Soil Survey). Per the NRCS Soil Survey, the expected range of production for this site is 300 <br />pounds per acre in normal years. This soil type occupies approximately 17% of the New Horizon permit <br />area (Map 2). <br />Ground cover in the Old Peabody Sage Reference Area (Chart 1 and Table 1) consisted of 29.4% <br />live vegetation, 20.7% rock, 13.5% litter, and bare soil exposure of 36.5%. Perennial cover across the <br />unit averaged 25.2% with annual and biennial cover averaging 4.3%, and no noxious weed cover was <br />observed. Dominant taxa were blue grama (Bouteioua gracilis), big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), and <br />James' galleta (Hi/aria jamesii), with 6.5%, 5.4%, and 3.9% average cover, respectively. Table 2 exhibits <br />the summarized relative cover results. <br />Current annual herbaceous production across the area averaged 382.1 pounds per acre with <br />perennial vegetation comprising 292.1 pounds per acre. Perennial grasses and perennial (orbs were the <br />dominant categories totaling 186.0 and 95.3 pounds per acre, respectively (Chart 3 and Table 3). <br />Woody plant density across the area yielded 853.9 stems per acre (Chart 4 and Table 4). Dominant <br />taxa were big sagebrush, plains pricklypear (Opuntia polyacantha), and four -wing saltbush (Atrip/ex <br />canescens) with 586.6, 137.6, and 95.1 stems per acre, respectively. <br />