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<br />Total Herbaceous Production: <br />The 1987 Findings Document stipulates that quarter meter square quadrats were <br />to be used in estimating total herbaceous production. At each sample location, five <br />plots (A through E) were placed randomly along the length of a 25 meter transect. <br />Thus plots were located on astratified-random design and each individual production <br />plot was considered to be a single sample unit. All current annual herbaceous <br />production rooted within each quadrat was clipped, separated according to life form, <br />and bagged. The five life forms included perennial and annual grasses, perennial and <br />annual/biennial fortis, and noxious weeds. <br />Following completion of the field work, all production samples were initially air <br />dried for two weeks and then oven-dried at 110 degrees Fahrenheit to a constant <br />weight. <br />• <br />Species Diversity: <br />Species diversity was not determined from multiple hit cover data as it was in <br />1991 and 1992. Exhibit B of the Appendix contains a comparison of 1991 and 1992 <br />first-hit cover data with the corresponding multiple-hit cover data. The fmding of this <br />comparison is that the difference between the two types of data in 1991 and 1992 was <br />negligible. Conclusions based on multiple-hit data would have been no different had <br />first hit data been used instead. Therefore, 1993 relative species cover, upon which the <br />species diversity standard was based and was to be judged, was derived from first hit <br />data. <br />3 <br />