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4-122 • 4.8.14 SUMMARY A vegetation study was conducted at the Diunger Canyon Mine during 1980 to collect data and comply with the repermitting requirement of the Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act. The permit area has six vegetation types, four of which are affected by mining activity. Affected vegetation types include a Greasewood Shrubland, Big Sagebrush Shrubland, Shadscale Shrub- land, and Juniper Woodland. Each of these vegetation types is common to extensive areas of western Colorado and neighboring Utah. A vegetation map was prepared, reference areas were located, and quantitative data collected. Sampling was confined to an area around existing disturbances and to areas of future disturbances • as well as to each reference area. Vegetation factors quantified for the six affected and reference areas included: cover, pro- duction, and shrub and tree density. See Tables 4.8-32, 4.8-33 and 4.8-34. All sampling was in accordance with existing and pro- posed regulations of the Office of Surface Mining and the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation. Sampling in all affected and reference areas for cover, production, and woody plant density met OSM and CMLR adequacy requirements (see Section 4.8.13). All reference areas except one (Shadscale Shrubland) met statistical accuracy requirements for comparability with respect to cover and all reference areas except one (Grease- wood Shrubland) were comparable by production. Higher cover • resulted in the Shadscale Shrubland being slightly unrepresen- tative and higher production resulted in the Greasewood Shrubland being .unrepresentative.