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<br />Mr. Gregg Squire -3- January 7, 1985 <br />The direction of cover transects will be determined by a randomly <br />selected compass bearing. Vegetation cover will be gathered using the point <br />intercept method and 10 pin frame (Mueller-Dombois and Ellenbert 1974}. Each <br />cover transect will consist of a total of 100 points along a 50m transect. <br />The pin frame will be read on both sides of the transect line at five randomly <br />selected points along the 50 meter transect. Cover hits for vegetation (by <br />species), litter-rock, or bare ground will be recorded at each point. <br />Vegetation cover sampling will be conducted during late July. Vegetation <br />cover on the pinyon-juniper reference area must be equivalent to the <br />vegetation cover on the pinyon-juniper affected area before productivity <br />measurements on the areas can be made. Equivalency for cover of the reclaimed <br />grassland area to the grassland reference will be done in a similar manner. <br />Productivity measurements will also be taken in late July. One <br />production quadrat will be clipped at each randomly located sample point in <br />each community and reference area. Productivity exclosures will not be <br />necessary because domestic livestock will not graze in the area until <br />productivity samples are taken. Production samples will be collected by <br />clipping all the current year's growth of herbaceous vegetation within a <br />rectangular quadrat at each sample point. (4m quadrats are anticipated at <br />this time. Any changes will be presented to the MLR Division for review, <br />comment, and acceptance prior to field implementation of alternate frame <br />sizes.) The plant materials clipped from each plot will be segregated <br />according to major life form, placed in bags, and labeled. All samples will <br />be dried for 24 hours in a drying oven at a constant temperature of 105°C. <br />All samples will then be weighed to the nearest 0.1 gm and the data recorded <br />according to species or major life form for each sample. <br />Success of revegeta±ion relative to vegetation cover and productivity <br />will be documented by comparing the cover and productivity of reclaimed sites <br />with the equivalent oarameters from the associated reference areas after the <br />appropriate weighting. Weighting is achieved by multiplying the parameter <br />estimate (e.g., cover) by the proportion of the revegetated area the type <br />represents then summing the values for all types represented. Weighting <br />formulae are: <br />X _ ah <br />wt - A <br />and <br />£ (Ah) L <br />u <br />