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and Russian knapweed. These patches of noxious weeds appear to have been eradicated and <br /> no additional plants were noted. Two non-native species, Russian thistle (a.k.a. tumbleweed; <br /> Salsola kali) and pigweed (Amaranthus sp.), were present in low numbers in some areas of the <br /> reclamation site. However, these are not listed as a noxious weed. Therefore, noxious weeds <br /> were not a concern at this site for 2015. <br /> 6.0 CONCLUSIONS <br /> Revegetation efforts at the Mesita Hill mine site are successful to the standards required of this <br /> mine site. The native vegetation is established and is continuing to self-regenerate and expand <br /> its cover. Noxious weed cover was not present. Vegetative cover and diversity across the <br /> reclaimed portions of the mine site has continued to increase since reseeding in fall 2008 with a <br /> shift in dominant vegetation cover from scattered grasses to a substantial number of shrubs and <br /> perennial forbs. This change in species composition might be due to grazing and browsing <br /> pressure from the free-range cattle and wildlife, including pronghorn, rabbits, and rodents. In <br /> addition, for the first several years following revegetation efforts, mine disturbance areas with <br /> topsoil had the greatest revegetation success; however, excellent cover and diversity was <br /> observed in 2015 across the majority of the mine site. This is also evidence that the mine site <br /> vegetative community and soil system are settling into a stable and sustainable state. <br /> 8 <br />