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this site. This plant was not planted and appeazs to have established from the direct replacement <br />• of the salvaged topsoil. The next most dominate plant was found to be Western Yarrow which <br />contributed 10.27 percent of the relative plant cover found on this site. The native Mountain <br />Bromegrass, which contributed a total of 6.84 percent of the relative cover on this site was the <br />subdominant grass on this site. <br />Species Diversity. Examination of the percent composition or relative cover values found in <br />Table 4, Moffat Reclaimed Area Plant Cover, indicate that there aze a total of five perennial <br />grasses contributing more than three percent of the relative cover on this reclaimed site and that <br />the maximum relative cover value of any single perennial grass is 26.24 percent. The combined <br />relative cover of these five species is 47.62 percent. A sixth grass plant was found to have a <br />relative cover value of 2.95 percent, which would round off to 3.0 percent. These data suggest <br />that the relative importance values for species diversity as measured by the relative percent cover <br />of perennial grasses at this location satisfy the Permit commitments for species diversity and that <br />this site is approaching the level where the perennial grass species diversity standazd can be <br />waived. <br />Shrub Density. The Permit commitment is to count shrub stems, due to the fact that in <br />undisturbed shrub dominated plant communities, a single plant may possess dozens, if not <br />hundreds of stems, and stems aze often easier to count than individual plants. However, in a <br />reclaimed situation, young shrub seedlings, usually almost always possess only a single stem, <br />meaning that for purposes of reclamation monitoring, stem counts and plant counts aze usually <br />identical. <br />• The results obtained from the twenty shrub density transects sampled on the Moffat Reclaimed <br />Area aze presented in Table 5, Moffat Reclaimed Area Shrub Density. Shrub establishment was <br />found to be highly variable, with shrubs .being encountered in only 14 of the 20 transects sampled <br />and in the transects where shrubs were encountered, the shrub density values encountered were <br />quite inconsistent, ranging from between one shrub per 100 meters to 77 shrubs per 100 meters <br />sampled. Table 2, Edna Mine Sample Adequacy Calculations, indicates that sample adequacy <br />was not achieved in the shrub density sampling of this site. <br />Overall, the average shrub density value was found to be 15.30 shrubs per 100 squaze meters or <br />619.19 plants per acre. This value is less than the approved standazd of 1,000 stems per acre <br />found in the Permit. Future monitoring data will determine whether the shrub density values of <br />this site aze increasing towazds the approved standazd. <br />WEST RIDGE TOPSOILED RECLAIMED AREA <br />Plant Cover. The results obtained from the sampling of this reclaimed site ate presented in <br />Table 6, West Ridge Topsoiled Reclamation Area Plant Cover. Based upon the twenty transects <br />sampled, plant cover on this area was found to be highly variable. As documented in Table 2, <br />Edna Mine Sample Adequacy Calculations, sample adequacy was not achieved for allowable <br />cover on this site. <br />• Total plant cover on this location was found to average 36.70 percent and allowable plant cover <br />