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INTRODUCTION <br />ESCO Associates Inc. was contracted by Hydro-Environmental Solutions, Inc. on behalf <br />of Hayden Gulch Terminal, Inc. to undertake monitoring of selected reclaimed and <br />reference areas at the Hayden Gulch Mine, located southeast of Hayden in Routt <br />County, Colorado. The Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology (CDMG) approved <br />the Phase II/Phase III reclamation liability release for 355.2 acres of the 364.1 acre <br />disturbance area in 1999. The purpose of this monitoring was to provide Hydro- <br />Environmental Solutions and HGTI with data on vegetation cover and woody plant <br />density, in support of a pending bond release application for various small reclamation <br />sites (totaling 8.9 acres) not previously released from bond liability at the site. <br />Reclamation parcels 003, HG-8 and E were sites in which intensive shrub plantings had <br />been undertaken. The "Slump" site had been a site of modest surface failure, whose <br />rehabilitation delayed eligibility for bond release. Sampling was accomplished in <br />August, 2004. This was the first of the two years of Phase.lll bond release vegetation <br />sampling. <br />Toward the end of developing reasonable and site-specific criteria to judge revegetation <br />success for cover in the parcels being tested in 2004, the surrounding extensive <br />reclamation of the HG Mine was selected as a "reference" area in accordance with the <br />CDMG's directive negotiated as part of Technical Revision No. 62 (TR-62). <br />Consequently, it was sampled at ten random locations to establish a level of vegetation <br />cover to function as a performance standard. <br />METHODS <br />Location and Number of Randomly Located Sampling Sites <br />Randomly located sample sites in reclaimed area enclosures are shown on Map 1. <br />Sampling for cover occurred along five transects randomly located in each of the three <br />shrub concentration parcels, Area 003, HG8, and E, while three cover transects were <br />sampled in the slump area. In the reference area, ten cover transects were sampled. <br />Cover Sampling <br />At each sample site, cover data were collected using apoint-intercept method in which <br />data were tabulated as interceptions of a point with either a plant species, bare ground, <br />litter, standing dead, or rock. The cover sampling points were optically projected using a <br />