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e <br />ESPEY, HUSTON A ASSOCIATES, INC. <br />• <br />Forty species were encountered on eighteen transects. Equitability or the evenness <br />of cover distribution among species was intermediate with an index of 1.10. These <br />indices reflect the low number of species found in the meadow community. The low <br />number of species is produced by the relatively uniform growing conditions found in <br />this meadow. The diversity and equitability indices for the reference community <br />aze compazable with the affected community. The reference and affected meadow <br />communities exhibit a moderately high overlap of species cover with a similazity <br />index of 57.7 percent (see Table K-11). <br />4.2 BIG SAGEBRUSH COMMUNTTY <br />The big sagebrush reference community is located south of the Rienau <br />No.2 (G-Seam) Mine between Curtis Creek and State Highway 13/789 at an <br />elevation of 6,840 feet. The approximately 2-acre reference azea is irregulaz in <br />shape. Vanda clay loam is the soil type of the reference azea. Clay loams aze <br />• common to the big sagebrush community throughout the affected azea. <br />The results of the quantitative analysis indicate that with respect to <br />shrub density, total vegetation cover, and species composition the reference and <br />affected azea big sagebrush communities aze most similar. The reference azea <br />community is located in a somewhat more mesic environment than is typical of the <br />big sagebrush community as a whole. Correspondingly, the shrubs aze taller and as a <br />life-form dominate the vegetation cover. <br />Understory herbaceous cover and herbaceous productivity are both lower <br />in the reference azea. Total vegetation productivity is also lower in the reference <br />community. The similazity index shows a 38.4 percent overlap of cover by species <br />between the big sagebrush reference and affected communities (see reference cover <br />and productivity Tables K-12 and K-13 and affected cover and productivity Tables <br />K-4 and K-5). <br />n <br />K-39 <br />