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• studies) covers approximately 4.8 acres in the far southern portion of the permit area. <br />The mountain brush reference area (referred to as mixed brush/aspen in earlier studies) is <br />located on 4.7 acres in an area west of the permit area. Aspen is represented in the <br />mountain brush community. Both reference areas have been protected from mining-related <br />disturbance end have been properly managed according to the postmining land use. <br />the reference areas will be used to determine weighted averages for comparison with the <br />revegetated areas es allowed for in 4. 15.7(4)(b). Weighted average values wilt be <br />developed for cover and production as more fully described in the following sections. <br />4eighting will be as follows. Baseline studies determined that 83 percent of the premi ne <br />undisturbed vegetation uas mixed brush/aspen, chile 17 percent included upland sagebrush. <br />Therefore, weighted values will be determined by muL ti plying .83 times the appropriate <br />mountain brush reference area parameter value and adding that value to the product of .17 <br />times the appropriate sagebrush reference area parameter value. <br />Cover. For all reclaimed areas, successful revegetation for cover will be based on the <br />canopy cover of living herbaceous vegetation (4.15.8(3)(a)(i) end (b)). The herbaceous <br />• cover in reclaimed areas is higher than in premine areas due to the applied current <br />reclamation technologies and the early successional status of the reclaimed communities. <br />This results in revegetated areas dominated by herbaceous species regardless of the number <br />of shrubs present. However, in the interim, herbaceous vegetation is practicable for the <br />postmining land uses and desirable for erosion control as successional patterns establish <br />in the reclaimed communities. Redente and others (1984) in a study of succession on <br />disturbed sites in northwest Colorado, found that seeded areas were dominated by grasses <br />five years later, no matter what the composition of the original mix was. <br />Cover data will be collected from the reclaimed bond release area and the sagebrush and <br />mountain brush reference areas during the same period. The herbaceous cover component <br />determined from sampling in the reclaimed and reference areas wilt be used for the <br />comparison. The herbaceous cover value from the mountain brush reference area will be <br />multiplied by .83 chile the herbaceous cover value from the sagebrush ref erente area will <br />be multiplied by .17. The two products will be added to determine the weighted cover <br />value. The resulting weighted value will be multiplied by a factor of two in order to <br />determine the actual value to be used in the success comparison. As discussed in the <br />• revegetation success section of Seneca II-W permit C-82-057 (Tab 22), this is a practical <br />approach for development of a cover standard. It solves the problem of a cover standard <br />derived from only [he herbaceous component of a woody dominated reference area wh ith is <br />13-35 Revised 01/15/93 <br />