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3.3 North Tuttle Reference Area <br />The North Tuttle Reference Area is comprised of approximately 2.3 acres located to the north of the <br />New Horizon permit area (Map 5). Soils in this area are Progresso / Pinon Complex (Unit 77 on NRCS Soil <br />Survey) and Pinon / Ustic Torriorthents (Unit 78 on NRCS Soil Survey). Per the NRCS Soil Survey, the <br />expected range of production for this site is 300-600 pounds per acre in normal years. This soil type <br />occupies approximately 17% for Unit 78 and 20% for Unit 77 of the New Horizon permit area (Map 2). <br />Ground cover in the North Tuttle Reference Area (Chart 1 and Table 1) consisted of 23.7% live <br />vegetation, 4.7% rock, 16.2% litter, and bare soil exposure of 55.4%. Perennial cover across the unit <br />averaged 12.9% with annual and biennial cover averaging 10.8%, and no noxious weed cover was <br />observed. Dominant taxa were redstem stork's bill (Erodium cicutarium), New Mexico Feathergrass <br />(Stipa neomexicana), and blue grama, with 8.9%, 2.2%, and 2.1% average cover, respectively. Table 2 <br />exhibits the summarized relative cover results. <br />Current annual herbaceous production across the area averaged 138.4 pounds per acre with <br />perennial vegetation comprising 81.6 pounds per acre. Perennial grasses and annual forbs were the <br />dominant categories totaling 71.3 and 55.8 pounds per acre, respectively (Chart 3 and Table 3). <br />Woody plant density across the area yielded 566.6 stems per acre (Chart 4 and Table 4). Dominant <br />taxa were big sagebrush and four -wing saltbush, with 222.6 and 263.0 stems per acre, respectively. <br />Attachment 2.04.1OC Page ll May 2017 (TR -14) <br />