PERMFILE49552 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

• southern areas. The total maximum disturbance area is illustrated on Exhibit 22-1- As can be seen from review of this exhibit, considerable undistuxbed areas will remain after cnining- related disturbances. These undisturbed areas represent similar ranges of soils, elevations, aspects, slopes, and phases of the representative vegetation communities in the affected areas. All premine vegetation communities are represented in these undisturbed areas (overlay Exhibit ZO-1 with 22-1). The extent of these undisturbed vegetation communities and the close proximity to the reclaimed azeas provide the best comparison to premine site and vegetation conditions possible. SCC has surface control of all lands to be included in the extended reference area. This will allow SCC to manage the reference areas in accordance with the approved postmining land use. It will also facilitate similar management for both the reference and revegetated azeas for any bond release evaluations during the last two gears of the liability period. The following details the criteria for comparisons to be made between reference azea information and revegetation communities to be returned on the postmining landscape. These criteria reflect reclamation experience and revegetation monitoring data from the Seneca II-W Mine from 1995 to 2003. The criteria attempt to provide realistic and achievable standazds that ensure erosional stability • of the landscape, provide adequate productivity for the postmining land use, and establish vegetative composition and successional potential suffident to ensure continued plant community development Because of a number of factors, both natural and as a result of applied current technology, reclaimed plant communities will be dominated by stabilizittg herbaceous vegetation which will provide a stable and productive beginning point from which vegetational change (succession) may move towazd plant communrities that include to greater or lesser degrees, the presence of woody plants and fortis. Standards, therefore, must be derived which not only take into account pretnining native vegetation conditions, but also consider the inherent reclaimed community characteristics resulting from applied technologies and realistic successional (community development) rates achievable in reclaimed azeas in the semiarid west after so little time as ten years. For the II-W mine (including the II-W South Extension area), the five dominant affected types in the permit azea include aspen woodland, mountain brush, steep mountain brush, sagebrush/snowberry, and westem wheatgrass/alkali sagebrush. These types aze well distributed across the undisturbed north, east, south, and west portions of the permit azea. Based on consideration of maximum • disturbance impacts, the following minimum acreages of the five major types will be available for comparison sampling. aspen woodland - 250 aces, mountain brush - 710 acres, steep mountain brush - 150 acres, sagebrush/snowbetry - 460 acres, and westem wheatgrass/alkali sagebrush - 150 acres. TR-50 45 Revised 04/05