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<br /> <br />well vegetated and reaches the carrying capacity for the Land. <br />• <br />• <br />The key indicators that the process has worked and is <br />working on any particular site rests in <br />grass near the nitrogen fixers should b <br />grasses growing away from those plants. <br />be evidence that each year of favorable <br />the third to fifth year produces from 5 <br />the total number of plants through seed <br />two aspects. First, the <br />more vigorous than <br />And second, there should <br />precipitation levels after <br />to 20 percent increase in <br />dispersal from older plants <br />including the nitrogen fixers. This rate of increase should <br />continue for about 5 to 8 favorable years after the site first showed <br />signs of natural seed production assuming an initial seedling <br />density of .ZS to .5 plants per square foot. At this rate, where <br />moisture is not limiting, at the end of 10 years there should be a <br />density of between 1 and 4 plants per square foot. <br />Although mine spoil reclamation is rarely done on new <br />• <br />mines, most older mines where the topsoil has been lost must use <br />these approaches. They are not as easy as when topsoil is used and <br />public opinion may be negative as to the rate of development, <br />but using these methods has worked in other areas and will no doubt <br />have to be applied to the reclamation of abandoned mined lands. P7e <br />believe this approach will work on all the quarries and believe that <br />Tract 1 at the Queen's Canyon Quarry has demonstrated its workability <br />even without nitrogen fixing plants or continued fertilization. <br />(Note: most of the figures presented here are based upon <br />observations at coal mines throughout Colorado where spoil materials <br />P-I-15* <br />