2015-10-13_REVISION - C1981014 (18)

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revegetation sampling effort was performed in August and September 2013 by IME of Yampa, Colorado and Mergen Ecological Delineations, Inc. of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Three reclaimed areas are located at the Southfield Mine site and one reclaimed area is located at the Southfield Loadout site. The four reference areas sampled included the Southfield Mine Refuse Pile, New Portal and Old Portal and the Southfield Loadout reference areas. This revegetation sampling effort was conducted and this report was prepared to document the reclamation success for the first year's reclamation monitoring requirements for the Phase III final bond release. The locations of the three Phase III Reclamation Blocks and three currently approved Reference Areas for the Southfield Mine are shown on Map 1, Southfield Mine - 2013 Reclamation Map and Map 21, Loadout Reclamation - 2013 Transect Location Map. The locations of the areas sampled were taken from the Southfield Mine Permit Maps and the Southfield Mine Annual Reclamation Report Maps. This reclamation monitoring effort was a combined effort involving IME Environmental Consultants of Yampa, Colorado and Mergen Ecological Delineations, Inc., of Colorado Springs, CO. Mr. Kent Crofts of IME Environmental Consultants, who has conducted numerous previous vegetation sampling efforts at the Southfield Mine and Southfield Loadout site since 1987 and on numerous other mine sites in Colorado in the past 36 years, performed all of the field work relating to the Southfield Mine Refuse Pile area, the Vento Portal Reclamation and New Portal Reference Area along with the Loadout area and wrote this report. Assisting in the IME field work portion of this work was Mr. Benito Garcia -Felix, who acted as field recorder and who summarized most of the plant cover field data sheets. Laboratory assistance was provided by Ms. Loraine Crofts, who weighted the plant samples and summarized the forage production field data sheets. The vegetation sampling of the Corley Reclamation along with the old Mine Portal Reference Area at the Southfield Mine site was performed by Mr. Daryl Mergen of Mergen Ecological Delineations, Inc., who has been involved in vegetation sampling efforts at the Southfield Mine for about 10 years and in other areas of the western United States for almost 25 years. METHODS Maps, in both electronic and hard paper format were supplied by Mr. George Patterson, who also delineated to the revegetation sampling crews, these reclaimed areas and reference areas in the field. The specific sampling methodologies used in this evaluation are those found in the Southfield Mine Permit, the Division's "Guidelines with Land Use and Vegetation Requirements of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board for Coal Mining" issued in June of 1988 and in the "Guidelines Regarding Selected Coal Mine Bond Release Issues" issued April 18, 1995. The vegetation maps showing the locations of the four reference areas sampled in connection with this 2013 sampling were taken from the current Southfield Mine Permit, Annual Reclamation Report Maps and the recent information submitted in connection with Technical Revisions Numbers 39 and 45. The reclamation unit boundaries were taken from the 2012 Annual Reclamation Report Maps for both the Southfield Mine and the Southfield Loadout areas.