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RULE 4 PERFORMANCE STANDARDS <br />4.15.10 Revegetation Success Criteria: Previously Mined Areas: Areas to be Developed for <br />Industrial or Residential Use <br />Colowyo does not plan to develop any areas to industrial or residential use; therefore, the <br />requirements of this Subsection are not applicable to Colowyo. <br />4.15.11 Revegetation Sampling Methods and Statistical Demonstrations for Revegetation <br />Success Revegetation Community Mapping / Stratification <br />Unless new, CDRMS approved, and superior monitoring and sampling metrics are developed, the <br />following metrics will be implemented at Colowyo to document revegetation progress and success. <br />During monitoring of revegetated units, developing shrub patches will be identified and as <br />necessary delineated (circumnavigated with a sub -meter GPS unit to document boundaries) to <br />facilitate mapping that in turn will represent the juxtaposition (stratification) of developing <br />communities. As indicated previously, delineated shrub patches will be classified as either "core" <br />areas or "ecotonal" areas depending on apparent density of developing shrub populations. Such <br />stratification is necessary as success criteria associated with areas of wildlife habitat will be <br />applicable to shrub -dominated communities as opposed to grassland success criteria applicable to <br />remaining revegetation efforts targeting livestock grazing land uses. <br />Sample Layout <br />The sample layout protocol for revegetation monitoring and bond release evaluations shall be a <br />systematic procedure designed to better account for the heterogeneous expression of seedings <br />within reclaimed areas while precluding bias in the sample site selection process. By design, the <br />procedure is initiated randomly, and thereafter, samples are located in a systematic manner, along <br />grid coordinates spaced at fixed distances, e.g. 200 ft. In this manner, "representation" from across <br />the target reclamation unit is "forced" rather than risking the chance that significant pockets are <br />entirely missed, or overemphasized as often occurs with simple random sampling. <br />Older reclaimed units (e.g., 7+ years) shall receive a minimum of 20 ground cover transects and <br />in monitoring areas — co -located shrub density belts. Production for monitoring purposes shall be <br />collected from a representative five of these 20 sample points. For bond release efforts, production <br />will be collected from a statistically adequate sample as defined below. Monitoring efforts for <br />younger reclaimed units (e.g., 2 to 4 years) shall receive 15 transects and co -located woody density <br />belts (as necessary) but no production sampling. First year units will receive one cluster of five <br />emergent density quadrats spread in a representative manner for approximately every two acres of <br />reclamation. For units 50 acres or larger, a five -quadrat cluster should be collected from every 4 <br />acres of reclamation. With regard to any two-year old or older reclamation unit that is smaller <br />than about 3 acres, the number of samples (for monitoring) shall be limited to five. <br />The systematic procedure for sample location in revegetated units shall occur in the following <br />stepwise manner. First, a fixed point of reference (e.g., fence corner) will be selected for the target <br />unit to facilitate location of the systematic grid in the field. Second, a systematic grid of <br />appropriate dimensions will be selected to provide a reasonable number of coordinate intersections <br />Rule 4 Performance Standards 4-76 Revision Date: 5/25/18 <br />Revision No.: RN -07 <br />