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XII. Vegetation 1. The Rockcastle Company is proposing to base revegetation success on only the sagebrush reference area (see comments under 4 below). Therefore, it is not necessary to define types of vegetation by acreage within each disturbed area. A map is attached which delineates the year and season that each area was seeded. 2. The Rockcastle Company agrees to a diversity standard of "at least four perennial grasses and one perennial forb", as requested by the Division. 3. The Rockcastle Company understands that grazing is not permitted on reclaimed areas without the approval of the Division. The Rockcastle Company will endeavor to restrict grazing on reclaimed areas, as previously described, during the term of the permit, until grazing has been approved. 4. The revegetation success criteria based on reference area comparisons, which have been proposed by The Rockcastle Company, did not elaborate how - or if - reference areas for the three plant communities would be averaged to arrive at single comparative standards for the required parameters which constitute the revegetation success criteria. In lieu of using some kind of weighted averages based on relative acre- ages or whatever, The Rockcastle Company proposes to base revegetation success on a comparison between reclaimed areas and the sagebrush refer- ence area (area 17). Rationale for this type of comparison includes: (a) The reclaimed "community" wil~resemble the pre-mining sagebrush community in terms of herbaceous species composition and production. (b) The sagebrush reference area (area 17) has the highest values for cover and production, and will therefore provide the most stringent test for determining revegetation success. (c) The mountain brush and aspen revegetation types are not particularly well suited for the post-mining land use. As requested by the Division, the sagebrush reference area number 17 will be used for success comparison.