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. occasionally present include silver sagebrush, rubber rabbitbrush, Oregon grape (Mahonia repens),
<br />chokecherry, bitterbrush, Gambel's oak, gooseberry, prickly rose (Rosa acicularis), and Woods' rose.
<br />Native perennial graminoids comprise the second most abundant lifetorm, 30.9 percent relative cover.
<br />The highest contributor to this total by far is Agassiz bluegrass (22.6 percent relative cover. Beyond
<br />Agassiz bluegrass, the most significant contributors to cover are Montana wheatgrass (Acroovron
<br />albicans), western wheatgrass, and slender wheatgrass. Other common, if not abundant species ,
<br />include sun sedge, mountain brome, Junegrass, onion grass, bottlebrush squirreltail, and Nelson
<br />nsedlegrass.
<br />Native perennial forbs provided 19.1 percent relative cover, the most abundant of which was arrowleaf
<br />balsamrool, followed by western yarrow, Pacitic aster, tailcup lupine, and chokecherry lupine. Though
<br />not abundant, wild onion, timber milkvetch, mariposa lily (Calochortus gunnisoniil, showy daisy,
<br />one-flower woodsunflower, showy goldeneye, microseris (Microseris nutansl, common yampa, James'
<br />starwort, hollyleaf clover, and American vetch were commonly present. Introduced perennial forbs
<br />included common though not abundant occurrence of common dandelion, and very sporadic occurrence of
<br />• Canada thistle.
<br />Neither native or introduced annual and biennial forbs are abundant. The most common are the natives
<br />baby blue-eyes, microsteris, and Douglas knotweed, and the introduced houndstongue and
<br />salsify.
<br />Total vegetation cover is 60.9 percent ,with 18.3 percent bare soil, 20.5 percent litter and 0.5
<br />percent rock (Table 5). Total herbaceous production was observed to be 913 oven-dry pounds per acre
<br />(Table 14). Shrub density totaled 5730 stems per acre, most oT which is comprised of mountain big
<br />sagebrush and mountain snowberry (Table 19). Other significant contributors were serviceberry, basin
<br />big sagebrush, and Douglas rabbitbrush.
<br />Total vegetation cover for the Sagebrush vegetation type in the Permit Area, at 68.3 percent (Table 9)
<br />was higher than that documented for the Expansion Area. While litter and rock cover was similar
<br />between the areas, bare soil was almost 10 percent higher in the Expansion Area than in the Permit
<br />Area (see Table 21). Cover by native perennial forbs was 16.9 percent in the Permit Area and 11.6
<br />percent in the Expansion Area, but for native perennial graminoids the relation was reversed with 30.9
<br />• percent cover in the Permit Area and 18.8 percent cover in the Expansion Area. This may reflect an
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