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The vegetative community and the cover in the 1989 seeding area was fairly uniform. The <br />sediment pond and ditch areas which were seeded in 1992 were similar to the older reclamation <br />in many areas. A few areas in the pond and ditch reclamation still had a significant component <br />of annuals. I told the Greystone representatives that it was not necessary to sample these <br />areas since areas of reclaimed hydrologic control structures do not need to go through a ten <br />year liability period. However, if transects had been laid out randomly, these areas could have <br />been included in the study. <br />The only area that appeared significantly different was the 1992 reclamation south of the road <br />(the old topsoil stockpile area). This area had several larger patches of predominantly annual <br />vegetation and some bare areas. The grass component of the vegetation in this area was quite <br />a bit less than across the road. <br />The reference area is predominantly a blue grama grassland with some rabbitbrush and cholla <br />cactus. There are small amounts of yucca, broom snakeweed, prickly pear cactus, ring <br />muhlenbergia, three-awn, and various (orbs. This area appears to be historically grazed very <br />heavily so that a low growing and tight mat of blue grama is by far the predominant species. <br />Very few seed heads were present at the time of this inspection. The live cover and litter from <br />the blue grama "turf" create much more effective cover here than on the disturbed mine area. <br />Based solely on my visual observations during this inspection, I would recommend approval of <br />Phase II bond release for the area north of the road if the vegetative cover is at least 90°k of the <br />cover in the reference area. I would not estimate that the cover in the reclaimed area meets this <br />criterion but, it is difficult to estimate the vegetative cover in the reference are because of the <br />nature of the blue grama "turf". As previously mentioned, there is a significant amount of bare <br />ground in the reclaimed area but, there do not appear to be any ongoing erosion problems and <br />there is no evidence of any significant past erosion. <br />Based on my observations, I would not recommend Phase II bond release south of the road due <br />to the lack of uniform establishment of perennial vegetation. <br />