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POSTMINING LAND USE <br />Introduction <br />This section addresses the requirements of Rules 2.05.5 Postmining Land Uses and 4.16.3 <br />Alternative Land Uses for areas affected by surface mining at New Horizon North (NHN) Mine. <br />Pre -Mining Land Use Summary <br />A detailed description and accompanying pre -mining land use map is found in Section 2.04.3 <br />and on Map 2.04.3-1 NHN Mine Land Use Map. In this discussion of postmining land uses, only <br />the current land use definitions found in Rule 1.04 are used. The extent of these pre -disturbance <br />land use categories is shown on Map 2.04.3-1. This analysis shows there were a total of four pre - <br />mining land use categories, further broken down into 13 subcategories corresponding to DRMS <br />land use categories within the areas corresponding to the NHN permit area. Each of these <br />corresponding land uses, their corresponding area and the percentage occupied by this specific <br />land use are presented below. Grazingland is the largest pre -mining land use consisting of 170.39 <br />acres (approximately 51.8% of the NHN permit area). Pastureland is the second largest pre - <br />mining land use and consists of 138.23 acres (approximately 42.0% of the NHN permit area). <br />Residential land use, which includes roads, accounts for 18.77 acres or 5.7% of the NHN permit <br />area. Developed water resources correspond to 1.49 acres or 0.5% of the NHN permit area. <br />Land use and baseline vegetation studies (Sections 2.04.3 and 2.04. 10) conducted during Fall <br />2008 and Summer 2009 as well as interviews with current landowners, other local operators, area <br />residents and local governmental officials, show that the dominate pre -mining land use can be <br />described as agricultural based largely on the availability of irrigation water and current level of <br />management. Vegetation types such as Wetland are present as a result of irrigation in the area <br />and used and managed in a fashion that is essentially identical to Irrigated Pasture/Cropland. <br />Baseline studies also show that Wetland and Irrigated Pasture/Cropland plant communities are <br />very similar in vegetative composition and are often used interchangeably depending on <br />landowners' needs. After several years of production as Irrigated Pasture/Cropland and/or <br />following the abandonment of irrigation, the Irrigated Pasture/Cropland areas become dried out <br />and become dominated by more invasive dryland species such as Russian Knapweed (Centaurea <br />repens), Quackgrass (Agropyron repens), Western Wheatgrass (Agropyron smithii) and <br />Buckhorn plantain (Plantago lanceolata). The most intensively managed areas (due to regular <br />applications of fertilizer and water) on the NHN permit area correspond to the Irrigated <br />Pasture/Cropland areas found on the Garvey Property. <br />All areas are used as Pastureland or Grazingland during other periods in the year, especially as <br />winter feeding areas based on surface landowners' needs. Other than farmsteads, facilities and a <br />small abandoned orchard, the natural vegetation on the balance of the disturbance area consists <br />of Sagebrush. These Sagebrush areas are not irrigated and are typically located upslope of the <br />Section 2.05.5 Page 1 March 2018 (TR -16) <br />