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• • Page 4 Oct. 6, 1983 Peter O'Connor Chieftain .Mine It is true that in a suitable envronment Slender Wheatgrass can do as well as Winter Wheat in producing cover, but in adverse sites the Winter Wheat tends to produce a larger crown the first season than Slender Wheatgrass and this helps protect the soil during that first year. Our emphasis on the wheatgr~,sses is not unusual. Diversity in a seed mixture or a vegetation stand should be judged from a species viexpoint and not the genus viexpoint. In fact, it is well known that the highest diversity communities are those that contain speclea that have tolerance curves xhich overlap and span the range of environmental conditions within the microsites. From an ecological standpoint, St does not matter Sf all the species are even in only one genus. In mined land reclamation, I am sure you are aware, the greatest diversity often comes £rom invasion, not planting. There are a large number of sites in Colorado that were planted about a decade ago with just a few species, but today have forty, fifty or even sixty species present and those other species are primarily native invaders. Furthermore, the fact that a particular species already exists on the site should, to a limited extent, not so much indicate what should be planted but what x111 come in naturally and therefore ~ not need to be planted (e. g. Stipa comata~. We agree that drill seeding more than 1 pound of sweetclover in soil would be patently unxise, unless you are growing sweetclover for honey production. But when dealing with spoil the standard rule does not work. There is one site I am familiar xith xhere a number of grasses and 10 pounds of sweetclover xas broadcast over each acre about 12 years ago, while another similar area was seeded with essentially the same grasses and only 2 pounds of sweetclover 10 years ago. Today the grass coves on the first area exceeds the grass cover on the second area 4c 1. Soil tests recently taken show that nitrogen levels 1n the first area are up to 30 times higher than on the second area and average about 20 times higher. In our opinion, we have been rather conservative with the clover, more so than experience would dictate. This was done in response to a general dislike of sweetclover in seed mixtures, a dislike that may be more of a predjudice than a justifiable position when spoil revegetation.is concerned. In discussions with the company, they feel they rant to drop Little Bluestem from the mixture because in all probability the seed will be drilled and this species is very difficult to drill at a rate that even approaches uniformity unless oats are used as a carrier. We do not want to plant oats. Therefore, in the topsoil seed mixtures in the application substitute 1 pound of Canada Wildrye and 1 pound of Russian Wildrye for Little Bluestem and in the overburden (spoil and spoil soil mixes seed mixture substitute 0.']5 pounds of Russian Wildrye for Little Bluestem. All other species should remain the same.