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November 1992 Reclaimed Area Percent Plant Cover, Species Diversity and Frequency). <br />Of particular note is that the seeded warm season grass, Sideoats Grama is the dominate <br />grass growing on this site. Seeded cool season wheatgrasses makeup the three <br />subdominate grasses found on this site. By way of comparison, this site which is almost <br />the identical age as the January 1992 Reclaimed Area lacks a sizeable portion of seeded <br />perennial forbs. This appears to suggest that perhaps the conditions associated with the <br />January 1992 seeding are more conducive to seeded forb establishment at this location. <br />Production. Forage production on this site was found to equal 50.91 grams per quarter <br />square meter or 1,814 pounds of air dry forage per acre (Table 8, Summary of Plant <br />Production.) This value is slightly higher than the corresponding production value <br />obtained from the January 1992 Reclaimed Area and essentially identical to that <br />associated with the 1987 Reclaimed Area. <br />1995 RECLAMATION SEEDING. <br />Cover. A total of five plant cover transects were evaluated on this site and sample <br />adequacy at the 90 percent confidence level was found to be 3.41 transects. This means <br />that an adequate number of transects was sampled on this site to characterize with a <br />good degree of accuracy the plant cover characteristics of this location. <br />The average total plant cover on this site was found to be 45.0 percent (Table 6, 1995 <br />Reclaimed Area Plant Cover, Species Composition and Frequency.) The dominate plant <br />is the cool season seeded Intermediate Wheatgrass, but the native seeded warm season <br />grasses, Sideoats Grama and Blue Grama are definite subdominates. Given the relatively <br />high percent composition of these two species (16.89 percent) and the fact this is the <br />newest reclaimed site on this mine site, it appears obvious that given the increase in <br />growth of these plants on adjacent reclaimed sites, that within a few years these areas <br />will truly be dominated by warm season grasses. <br />Production. Forage production on this site was found to equal 76.75 grams per quarter <br />square meter or 2,735 pounds of air dry forage per acre (fable 8, Summary of Plant <br />Production.) This value is the highest forage production value found on any of the <br />reclaimed sites sampled at this location. In part, the high production can be explained by <br />the fact that volunteer forbs, particularly Annual Sunflower, contribute such a large amount <br />to the forage production on this site. With time, the contribution of the annual forbs will <br />significantly decrease and the perennial grasses and forbs should increase. <br />GRASSLAND REFERENCE AREA. <br />Cover. A total of five transects were sampled on this site in connection with the 1997 <br />vegetation monitoring effort. At the 90 percent confidence level sample adequacy was <br />calculated to equal 3.3 transects. This means that a sufficient number of transects was <br />taken to describe with a very high degree of accuracy the vegetative characteristics of this <br />6 <br />