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• 8.0 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BOND RELEASE STANDARDS The current permR for Bowie's operations identified three major communities for which reference areas have been established, as appropriate. These are juniper woodland, mixed shrub, and disturbed meadow. Because the Ioadout area is comprised of five "new" communities, a different set of bond release criteria is necessary. Because of the multitude of land owners and management within the narrow valley encompassing the vegetation study area, it is recommended that an "extended reference area" approach for eventual revegetation success evaluation be utilized, excepting where Taxed technical standards would be used for woody plant density and crop yields. In this regard, the following table presents proposed success criteria and technical standards to be utilized in an evaluation protocol that complies with Colorado's "Guideline Regarding Selected Coal Mine Bond Release Issues" (Apn7 18, 1995) or future document(s) that may supercede this guideline. Procedures used to coated comparison data would be similaz to those used for this baseline evaluation (e.g., point-intercept along line-transacts for ground Dover). At the time of this writing, the approved comparison technique involves the "reverse null hypothesis testing procedure" as detailed in the April 18, 1995 guidelines. Extended Reference Area Comparisons and Technical Standards • Revegetated Gmund Current Annual Woody Plant Diversity Community Cover Production Density Standard Pastwe 90% of 9096 of N/A 2 P. Grasses & 1 P. Forb Extended Extended Between 2 & 40% Reference Area Reference Area Relative Cover trrigatedFlayfield N/A 90%of N/A N/A 3400 air dry ishac Orctwrd N/A N/A 90% of N/A 133 live fruit trees/ac Derelict 90% of 73°h of Pasture 90% of 3 P. Grasses & 1 P. Forb EMended EMended 90 live trees/ac or Shrub Between 2 640% Reference Area Reference Area' Relative Cover Riperlen/Wetland N/A N/A N!A N/A Residential /Ind. Fac. N/A N/A N/A N/A ' At a baseline vegetation scoping meeting with CDMG (June 28, 2000), it was agreed that no production data collection would be necessary hom the Derelict Community (see Page a of Exhibit 5 -Baseline Vegetation Survey). Therefore, by agreement, no extended reference area was established for this variable for this community. To eflecl a production standard for the Derelict community, BRL proposes that the following formula be utilized for comparison to the 'Pasture' exended reference area. Derelict Production Standard = 90% of 'Mod'Aied Pasture extended reference area". Modification is based on the ratio of baseline total plant cover between Pasture and Derelict types (see Table V6 in Exhibit 5 -Baseline Vegetation Survey). Pasture total plant cover = 73.45°h, Derelict total plant cover = 59.73%. Ratio = 59.73!73.45 = 0.81. Therefore, the Derelict production standard would be: 90°~ of 81 °h of the Pasture extended reference area; or more simply: 73°h of the Pasture extended reference area. ~A ~ Am®a."nnsuo, INC. Page 29 6mibit 5 - 9owle Baselirre Vege4fon Survey 10/01 P~--6 /~PPxovED 1/~s~oZ