PERMFILE100087 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

slope and very dense along the lower slope segment. Vegetation cover averaged 32.00 • percent, dominated by grasses (25.334'0) and forbs (6.67%). Litter cover was significant at 30.67 percent. Rock cover provided 12.67 percent ground cover at the Staging Area. As with the other reclaimed or revegetated areas, the C factor value was selected from the "no appreciable cover" category of Table 1. Ground cover at the Staging Area totaled 75 percent, indicating a C factor value of 0.02. At the undisturbed adjacent oakbrush community, based on quantitative sampling in 1995 and 1996 (Savage and Savage, 1995, 1996), the vegetative cover is a mixture of tall shrubs and short trees dominated by t?uercus gambelii (oakbrush), Amelanchier alnitniia (serviceberry), Prunus virginiana (chokecherry). In the understory of the oakbrush community, the shrub Symphoricarpos rotundifo/ius (snowberry) predominates. A short, sparse and ephemeral grass and fort layer is present under the tall woody plants. This layer is dominated by Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass) and Carexgeyeri (elk sedge) (Savage and Savage, 1995, 1996). In terms of C factors, this vegetation community falls outside those categories described in Table 1 since it cannot be characterized as permanent pasture or rangeland. Table 2 provides C factors for woodland communities. Tree canopy coverage for this community averaged 65 percent (Savage and Savage, 1995, 1996). From Table 2, a C factor of 0.22 was interpolated. At the Water Tank Site, vegetation cover was 48.40 percent (Appendix Table 3). Significant vegetation cover was split between grasses (27.60%) and forbs (20.40%). • Litter provided 16.20 percent ground cover, and rocks provided 0.80 percent. As with the Lone Pine Gulch Surface Facilities Area, Table 1 was used to select a C factor value. From the "no appreciable canopy" category, with 65 percent ground cover, a value of 0.034 was interpolated. The vegetation at the Water Tank Site was not quantitatively sampled prior to disturbance. Based on surrounding vegetation, this area was likely an oakbrush or open sagebrush vegetation community prior to construction of the water tank. For the purposes of this analysis, C factor values for both communities were identified. For the oakbrush vegetation community, a C factor value of 0.22 was selected based on the rationale presented above. For the open sagebrush community, information on cover and composition was obtained from the original vegetation survey conducted in 1980. The results of that survey (for the sagebrush community) indicated shrubs (averaging 1 m. high) provided 4l percent cover. Grasses and forbs accounted for 57 percent cover and litter was sparse. The observed shrub height falls between two categories in Table 1; the "canopy of tall forbs or short brush" and the "appreciable brush or brushes" categories. As sagebrush is more closely allied with brush or bushes, the second category was selected. Based on the reported ground cover of 57 percent, sparse litter, and shrub canopy of 41 percent, a conservative C factor value of 0.038 was selected. n U -5-