2015-10-13_REVISION - C1981014 (12)

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Executive Summary Revegetation monitoring data were collected in 2014 on the reference and reclaimed areas located at the Southfield Mine and Southfield Loadout areas to satisfy the second year of Phase III revegetation monitoring to determine if the final revgetation success criteria had been satisfied for these areas. The existing Permit sections and recently approved Technical Revision Numbers 39 and 45, which added a new Portal Reference Area and provided clarification on how the three Southfield Mine reclaimed and references areas would be combined. This will be accomplished through means of a weighted averaging process and by comparing the Southfield Loadout reclaimed areas and reference areas individually, were evaluated for their revegetation success. The weighted average allowable plant cover on the three reclaimed areas at the Southfield Mine was 46.78 %. This compares with a weighted average allowable plant cover of 35.31 % for the three reference areas, demonstrating that allowable plant cover satisfied the currently approved plant cover requirements. At the Southfield Loadout site, the allowable plant cover averaged 39.10 % on the reclaimed areas and 28.67 % on the reference area, again demonstrating that the revegetation success standard for allowable plant cover was also achieved on this site. The weighted average forage production on the three reclaimed areas at the Southfield Mine area was 46.78 g/1/4m2 or 1,667.2 pounds of air-dry forage per acre which exceeded the weighted average forage production of 23.48 g/1/4m' or 836.8 pounds of air-dry forage per acre for the three reference areas. This documents that the reclaimed forage production satisfied the currently approved forage production requirements. At the Southfield Loadout site, forage production on the reclaimed areas averaged 24.85 g/l/4M2 or 885.7 pounds of air-dry forage per acre as compared with 11.30 g/1/4m2 or 402.7 pounds of air-dry forage obtained from the reference area. Across all four reclaimed areas located at the Southfield Mine and Southfield Loadout, the standard of four dominant species being less than 80 % was satisfied. The warm season grass species diversity index value of these same four reclaimed areas, was found to be 3.27, which is higher than that associated with the four undisturbed reference areas (2.24), thus the warm season grass species diversity revegetation success standard was satisfied on all areas. The weighted average shrub density value for the two reclaimed areas at the Southfield Mine, as well as the one reclaimed area at the Southfield Loadout were all found to be higher than the woody plant density revgetation success standard approved in connection with TR -45. These results for allowable plant cover, forage production, warm season grass species diversity and shrub density, document that for the 2014 reclamation monitoring, the approved revegetation success standard for the second year's Phase III bond release monitoring have been satisfied. The results obtained from the 2014 sampling effort are consistent with the results obtained from the 2013 sampling and both monitoring efforts document that all of the required revegetation success criteria, involving plant cover, forage production, species diversity and shrub density have been satisfied and there is no reason why final bond release should be denied.