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III. COMMENTS -COMPLIANCE <br />Below are comments on the inspection. The comments include discussion of observations made <br />during the inspection. Comments also describe any enforcement actions taken during the inspection <br />and the facts or evidence supporting the enforcement action. <br />apparently effective, and relatively diverse stand of desirable perennial vegetation. Woody <br />plant establishment success was patchy, and variable even among concentrated planting <br />areas where herbaceous vegetation was not seeded. Avery successful shrub establishment <br />area was observed in a draw several hundred yards east of Topsoil Stockpile P2. This <br />planting included several mature transplant pads with high numbers of vigorous snowberry <br />and woods rose; some apparently from mature transplant and some from seed. Areas <br />adjacent to the transplant pads supported dense rose thickets, along with numerous big <br />sagebrush shrubs, and less numerous serviceberry and bitterbrush plants. <br />By contrast, a 1994 shrub establishment area located higher on the steep slopes to the east <br />(nearer the ridgeline access road) supported very few surviving shrubs, and the shrubs <br />observed appeared stunted. The area was quite weedy, with Canada thistle scattered <br />throughout. Most of the other shrub establishment areas observed appeared to range <br />between these extremes. The approved permit standards for woody plant density are an <br />average of 450 stems per acre (over-all) and 2000 stems per acre within concentrated <br />planting locations. It is recommended that the operator assess the success of shrub <br />establishment within the concentrated planting locations, and consider re-treatment <br />(disking, roughening, seeding with the shrub/forb seedmix and possibly shrub planting) in <br />those areas similar to the 1994 area described, where plantings have substantially failed, <br />and the bond release standard is clearly not being met. <br />10 <br />