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corresponding frequency values can be high. The use of cover, frequency, and species density data in association with the diversity standard will allow assessment of the • potential for increasing diversity end the capability for succession. woody Plant Density. Moody plant density wi Li be determined on the basis of a performance standard. The overall woody plant stem density for reclaimed areas will be 450 stems per acre. In the concentrated woody plant establishment sites, the woody plant stem density will be 2000 stems per acre. These sites will not have less than 90 percent of 2000 stems per acre with 90 percent statistical confidence end the mean woody plant density for the entire reclaimed area will not be less than 90 percent of 450 stems per acre with 90 percent statistical confidence. The above standard represents a realistic standard based on ecological, technological, economic, end land use considerations. The reclaimed lands reflect, at best, en early successional stage of native premine communities and the nature of mining disturbances will maintain this longer than in woody communities experiencing a more surf iciaL disturbance. Early successional patterns within the native communities are characterized by a herbaceous dominated community. This is also true for reclaimed areas whether seeded or not. An unseeded shrub plot established at the nearby Seneca Mine in the Wadge reclaimed area in 1986 was dominated by herbaceous perennial species four years later in 1990 (see Table 42 in the 1990 Annual Vegetation Monitoring Report for the Seneca Mine). An even moderate Level of shrub reestablishment would most likely reflect a mid to late seral stage of a native community and would require development periods far longer than an extended liability period for reclaimed lends. More importantly, the pathway of succession may be different due to drastic site changes (including substrate and soil structure) on mined lands and climatic patterns different from that which were present during establishment and development of these communities. Mountain brush vegetation types with tall shrub species represent well established clonal communities that ere hundreds end perhaps thousands of years old (Dr. David Buckner, personal communication, 1992). Reproduction is almost exclusively by asexual means with little or no establishment from seed. Furthermore, the codominant tall shrub species, Gembel oak, occurs at the limit of its range extension end evidence suggests that it became established in a period with more different and wetter climatic conditions than now (Neilson and Nallstein, 1986). Reclaimed site conditions are far more xeric than native sites, probably even drier than the more xeric of the native sites, the sagebrush • 46 Revised 06/19/95