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3.2 Saae Reference Area <br />The Sage Reference Area is comprised of approximately 2.9 acres located to the north of the New <br />Horizon permit area (Map 4). Soils in this area are Progresso / Pinon Complex (Unit 77 on NRCS Soil <br />Survey). Per the NRCS Soil Survey, the expected range of production for this site is 600 pounds per acre <br />in normal years. This soil type occupies approximately 20% of the New Horizon permit area (Map 2). <br />Ground cover in the Sage Reference Area (Chart 1 and Table 1) consisted of 30.5% live vegetation, <br />2.0% rock, 21.7% litter, and bare soil exposure of 45.9%. Perennial cover across the unit averaged <br />24.6% with annual and biennial cover averaging 5.9%, and no noxious weed cover was observed. <br />Dominant taxa were big sagebrush, James' galleta, and plains pricklypear, with 9.2%, 8.3%, and 6.7% <br />average cover, respectively. Table 2 exhibits the summarized relative cover results. <br />Current annual herbaceous production across the area averaged 235.6 pounds per acre with <br />perennial vegetation comprising 180.5 pounds per acre. Perennial grasses and annual forbs were the <br />dominant categories totaling 130.5 and 52.4 pounds per acre, respectively (Chart 3 and Table 3). <br />Woody plant density across the area yielded 3,310.3 stems per acre (Chart 4 and Table 4). <br />Dominant taxa were plains pricklypear and big sagebrush with 2,406.5 and 874.1 stems per acre, <br />respectively. <br />