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• compazed to the weighted mean herbaceous production determined from the mountain shrub and <br />sagebrush reference aeeas. The weighting will be as described in the earlier discussion on reference <br />areas. <br />Herbaceous production will be collected by clipping the current years above ground herbaceous <br />biomass from randomly located one-half square meter or one square meter sample plots in the <br />revegetated and reference azeas. Fencing or exclosures will be used to exclude livestock prior to <br />sampling, where necessary. The comparison standazd for production will be determined by taking <br />the mean herbaceous production value for each of the two reference areas, weighting each value as <br />previously described, and combining the weighted values to determine the standard. <br />The calculated production standard will be compared to the mean herbaceous production value for <br />the xevegetated aeeas. For production, the revegetated areas shall be considered acceptable if it is not <br />less than 90 percent of the production standard with 90 percent statistical confidence. The general <br />equation for production related success comparisons is as follows: <br />xrevp _ .90 ((.83 xb~(.17 as~) with 90% statistical confidence <br />• where: xr~p =mean herbaceous production - revegetated azea <br />xbp =mean herbaceous production -mountain brush reference azea <br />xsp =mean herbaceous production -sagebrush reference azea <br />Production data will be collected from randomly located plots. Sampling will be to adequary or to an <br />upper limit of samples determined in consultation with the Division. <br />Soeaes Diversity. Diversity in reclaimed areas will be based on a perfomtance standazd reflecting <br />evaluation of monitoring data from reference aeeas and reclaimed aeeas collected since 1987. Data <br />from the original baseline study completed in 1980 was not used in developing the standard because <br />cover data was collected as basal cover for all species, but included canopy coves for shrub spedes <br />only. The use of Daubenmire plots combined with the basal cover estimates resulted in a lower <br />number of species present than what is now indicated in reference azea monitoring. <br />Diversity for reclaimed areas is difficult to assess since these areas aze quite dissimilar to the adjacent <br />native communities relative to those pazameters, which are representative of advanced successional <br />status (i.e., at subclimax or climax). In the native communities these parameters are diversity and <br />• woody plant density. Furthermore, diversity in reclaimed azeas is strongly influenced by grading and <br />topsoiling procedures, revegetation techniques, applied seed mixes, climatic patterns during the <br />TR-40 13-15-3 <br />