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RULE 4 PERFORMANCE STANDARDS <br />Remediated areas will be monitored for one year following repair, and should the area appear to be <br />stabilized monitoring will be discontinued for that area. Areas that continue to exhibit unstable conditions <br />will be remediated again and monitored for another year. <br />4.15 Revegetation Requirements <br />4.15.1 General Requirements <br />Colowyo will establish on all affected land within the mine plan area a diverse, effective and permanent <br />vegetative cover of the same seasonal variety as that native to the area. On lands revegetated prior to <br />2008 the vegetative cover will be comprised of native and introduced species that are desirable and <br />necessary to achieve the approved postmining land use as required under Section 4.15.2. The original <br />seed mixture to be planted is shown in Section 2.05 on Table 7, Reclamation Seed Mixture. On lands <br />revegetated in 2008 and thereafter, the vegetative cover will be comprised of native species that are <br />desirable and necessary to achieve the approved postmining land uses as required under Section 4.15.2 <br />(with modest exceptions). (Several interim seed mixture modifications have been adopted over the years, <br />the most recent of which is a primarily native mix - see MR -59 dated 9/10/02). However, in response to <br />Stipulation # 8 for PR -02, additional seed mixtures, revegetation metrics, and bond release protocols <br />designed to target specific post -mining land use components are presented within the context of this <br />section (4.15) as well as the reclamation plan, Section 2.05. <br />Remaining discussions under this section (4.15) will refer to "pre -2008" versus "post -2008" revegetation <br />plans, efforts, specifications, and bond release protocols. Pre -2008 refers to revegetation activities <br />performed prior to April, 2008). Post -2008 refers to revegetation activities occurring during or after <br />April, 2008. <br />The details of the revegetation plan are discussed in Section 2.05.4. <br />4.15.1(4) Vegetation Monitoring <br />The monitoring plan to evaluate the success of shrub conducive efforts including direct seeding of <br />sagebrush, natural reinvasion by sagebrush, as well as herbaceous vegetation success is as follows: <br />To facilitate identification, sampling of herbaceous vegetation will take place during the peak of <br />the growing season when the vegetation reaches the mature stages. This period of time is <br />generally from late June to late August. <br />Unlike sampling for bond release purposes, sampling will not be required to meet statistical <br />adequacy. <br />During the first growing season of a reseeded area, a visual determination of seeded and volunteer <br />species will be performed. From -this information, any apparent revegetation issues will be <br />determined for the seeded species, and unsatisfactory stands of any component can be identified <br />for corrective action. In addition to this visual evaluation, a semi -quantitative procedure will be <br />implemented to evaluate seedling emergence. This procedure involves unbiased placement of <br />several small quadrat frames at multiple locations across the reclaimed unit and counting the <br />number of emergent plants by life form within each quadrat. Conversion to the number of <br />emergents per square foot facilitates an assessment of the eventual success of the seeding effort. <br />During the second and fourth growing season of a reseeded area, herbaceous cover and woody <br />plant density information will be gathered. This information will be gathered at the species level <br />Rule 4 Performance Standards 4-40 Revision Date: 1/31/18 <br />Revision No.: TR -119 <br />