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Postmining Land Use <br />The revegetation plan detailed in the following pages has been carefully developed to achieve <br />the postmining land use of livestock grazing and wildlife habitat. It will also aid in landform <br />stability and mitigate impacts to vegetation resources. Furthermore, this plan is designed to <br />meet CMLRD Rules and Regulations that state: "All areas affected by surface coal mining <br />operations shall be restored in a timely manner: I1) to conditions that are capable of supporting <br />the uses which they were capable of supporting before any mining; or 121 to higher or better <br />uses ..." 14.16.1111,121 While mitigation of impacts to vegetation resources will be facilitated <br />by application of best current technology, limitations on the degree of successful mitigation <br />will result because of inherent long-term successional time frames and ecological <br />characteristics of regional native vegetation. <br />The revegetation plan has been developed initially with herbaceous production emphasized over <br />development of large woody plants. This was done after careful consideration of wildlife <br />habitat needs in the general area and how the postmine reclaimed landscape and plant <br />communities would integrate with the undisturbed land forms, vegetation communities, and <br />habitat surrounding the permit area. Again, successional time frames and the required land <br />form stabilization practices play important roles in the type of vegetation initially established on <br />the reclaimed landscape. The herbaceous vegetation necessary for quick and long-term <br />stabilization is highly competitive and will dominate fora considerable period of time before <br />woody cover predominates again. <br />As detailed in Tab 4, Land Use, livestock grazing has been the historic most intensive land use <br />of the permit area. Since the surface ownership of the permit area is, for the most part, <br />private (see Tab 3, Adjudication Filel, the postmine surface control will nearly all be private. <br />Thus, because of economics, ownership, and ranching as a major industry in the area, the <br />primary postmine land use will revert to livestock grazing. The revegetation plan has been <br />developed to restore this use. These practices will concentrate on stabilization and forage <br />resources while backfilling and grading practices will provide topographic diversity and <br />stockwater developments. These practices will concurrently satisfy the needs of wildlife as <br />well. Livestock grazing will encourage reestablishment of native diversity and woody plant <br />density (see the 1989 Revegetation Monitoring Report for the Seneca II Mine, Wadge Pasture <br />grazing discussionl. <br />A common range improvement/rehabilitation practice is the reduction or elimination of <br />5 Revised 1/99 <br />