2018-08-30_PERMIT FILE - C1982057 (2)

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Areas Covered by Studies The pre-1997 vegetation studies covered the 1985 Seneca II-W Mine Permit Area, the 1990 • Mine Permit Expansion Area to the north, east, and south of the previously permitted area and extended south to include portions of the Seneca II-W South Extension area. Vegetation studies were also conduced in an area designed for construction of the tie-across haul road. The original proposed location of the road was changed at the request of the CDOW and Routt County to avoid disturbing areas occupied by the sandhill crane. Subsequent verification studies were conducted to verify that the new areas of affected native vegetation were similar to the native reference area and like native stands previously sampled. Reference Areas Original reference areas were selected after sampling points were located for the 1979 study. During resampling in 1963, the 1979 aspen reference area could not be relocated. Per correspondence with CMLRD, a new aspen reference are was established. The original reference areas for the aspen, sagebrush, and mixed brush types were approximately two acres in size, marked with metal fence posts and tagged with appropriate identification. For the 1990 and 1997 studies, an extended reference area approach was applied. In this approach, all undisturbed native vegetation within the proposed mine area is used to develop a vegetation data set to be used for comparison to the reclaimed area vegetation data set. A • more detailed discussion of extended reference areas is presented in Tab 22 in Testing for Successful Reclamation. Vegetation Type Designations Vegetation type identified in the 1997 study (described in Section 10.21 are consistent with those of recent baseline studies at the Seneca II Mine, Seneca Yoast Mine, and more recent portions of the Seneca II-W Mine Permit Area. Since the earliest baseline studies by ERT in 1979, names for the plant communities used in subsequent ecological studies have changed somewhat to reflect ecological conditions and characteristics. Aspen Woodland of original studies (described in Section 10.1) has in more recent times been referred to as Aspen Forest because most often the canopy approaches closure rather than occurring as an open stand with large species between trees as would be typical of a woodland. Mixed Brush of earliest studies has been termed Mountain Brush in order to be somewhat more specific in identifying this shrub-dominated ecosystem of the montane zone and distinguishing it from many other lower elevation ecosystems dominated by various combinations of shrubs. A unit described as Steep Mixed Brush in earlier studies corresponds to Steep Mountain Brush in the 1997 study. The ecosystem described as Sagebrush in earlier studies is most often co-dominated by mountain snowberry and hence is labeled in the 1997 study Sagebrush/Snowberry. The unit labeled as Law Sagebrush in some early studies corresponds to the Western Wheatgrass/Alkali Sagebrush unit in the 1997 study. p-2 Revised 9/98