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Methods <br />~~ Sample Point Selection. Sample point locations were randomly determined using a grid <br />coordinate system and a random numbers table in the office prior to sampling. A grid was <br />placed over the vegetation map by hand, with grid lines oriented north-south and east-west. <br />Grid size was sufficiently small (200 feet x 200 feet) to ensure that any point on the ground <br />would have an equal likelihood of being sampled by a randomly oriented 50 m transact. <br />At the initiation of the study in July 1997, SCC provided a map showing the location of <br />proposed mining, transport, sediment control and other facilities planned at that time to allow <br />ESCO to determine an area to be affected and separate that area from the unaffected portion <br />of the permit area that would serve as the extended reference area. On the vegetation map, <br />grid cells included within either the affected area or the extended reference area portion of <br />each vegetation type were separately and sequentially numbered. For each of the twelve <br />"sample universes" random numbers within the applicable numerical range were taken from a <br />table of random numbers (Rohlf and Sokat, 1969) and used to designate sample sites which <br />were numbered in the order of their selection. In each of the twelve areas on the vegetation <br />map, 52 sample points were initially mapped. In the field, topography and landmarks were used <br />along with pacing to locate sample points as closely as possible. When the area of a mapped <br />sampling point was located in the field, a blind throw of a clipping hoop was made to select an <br />actual plot location. Cover and woody plant transacts were randomly oriented according to the <br />spin of an elongate object (meter stick or pencil). <br />Exclosure Installation. The 1997 studies were initiated sufficiently late in the growing season <br />that there was no livestock grazing so no exclosures were installed. Furthermore, growing <br />conditions were very favorable with 67% of normal rainfall during the period of April through <br />July and biomass production was sufficiently large that grazing animals had made no <br />measurable reduction in the standing crop biomass in the areas sampled. <br />Cover. In the Seneca II-W South Extension area and associated reference areas, canopy cover <br />(foliage cover) data were collected in July and August 1997. Cover measurements were taken <br />on all strata (herbaceous component, shrubs, and trees). <br />Cover data were collected using a point-intercept method in which data are tabulated as <br />interceptions of a point (projected upward and downward) with plant parts Iby species), <br />standing dead plant material, bare soil, litter (fallen organic debris), or rock (pieces with <br />diameter greater than 1 cml. Each point was optically projected using aCover-Point Optical <br />Projection Device, developed by ESCO Associates, Inc. Each cover sample consisted of a <br />randomly located and oriented 50-meter transact, along which 50 sample points were <br />systematically arranged. Vegetation intercepted below the first hit was recorded separately by <br />species. <br />45 Revised 9196 <br />z::!'.,.1LS,: ~f'a=~...Y;_a.-x.~._s-~r ;'`..~' rs - '~r3Laia3.~-i~.r'Ye~~'i_ b~._:_ , <br />