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Larencilo Caravan Mirte ~ Vegerarian Technical ReOOn <br />• obtained for associated hay meadows, but the Land Use section discusses county production <br />averages and estimates for hay and forage production. <br />PinyonlJuniper Woodland <br />Pinyon pine (Pinus edulis), Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma), and one-seed juniper (Juniperus <br />monosperma) dominate dry mountain escarpments and low mesas and plateaus. Juniper seems <br />limited in the permit area, but is much more dominant to the north. A sparse understory of <br />grasses and forbs is present. No pinyon/juniper woodland occurs within the proposed disturbance <br />areas. Consequently, this community was not quantitatively sampled. <br />Quantitative Sampling Results <br />Quantitative sampling results of disturbance and reference areas is presented in this section. <br />Transect locations of sampled areas are shown on Maps V-1 to V-4. <br />Grassland Disturbed Area <br />Within the permit area, grassland study areas were located in the proposed surface mine area, <br />Portal P3, and Portal P2. Dominant perennial grasses included blue grama and western <br />• wheatgrass (Agropyron smithit) at 14.8 and 2 percent cover, respectively. Cottunon perennial <br />forbs included trailing fleabane (Erigeron}lagellaris) and fringed sage (Anemisia frigida). Broom <br />snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae) was the dominant subshrub hit during the cover measurements. <br />Litter comprised roughly 50 percent of the entire transect cover. Rock comprised a minimal <br />amount of the overall cover, while bare ground covered about 19 percent of the total cover. <br />Statistically for cover, this area meets the criteria of being at least 90 percent similar to the <br />reference area. Table V-2 summarizes the grassland raw quantitative data from Tables V-3 to V- <br />6. <br />Shrub density for this study area was calculated to be 96 woody stems per hectare. Winterfat and <br />Gambel oak were the dominant woody shrubs with 0.4 absolute mean density each. <br />Production in the study area grassland totaled 122.36 pounds per acre. This measurement was <br />found to be within a 90%a confidence interval for production when compared to the reference area. <br /> <br />Veg 475/December 9, 1996 7 <br />