Laserfiche WebLink
collected in sampling the plant cover. <br />As outlined in the Division's Guidelines, all noxious weed cover and annual and biennial plant <br />cover in excess often percent of the total vegetative cover was excluded from the calculations of <br />"allowable cover." Cryptograms and rock were also excluded in calculating the values of <br />"allowable cover." <br />The Raton Creek reclaimed rangelands cover'success standazd is based on "allowable cover." <br />Page 521 of the Raton Creek Mine Permit states that the "allowable cover" standazd is 25 %. <br />The Permit does not contain separate standards for herbaceous cover or litter standards. <br />Production. Production at the Raton Creek Mine was sampled using a simple random statistical <br />sampling approach, all of the production transect locations were randomly located within the <br />reclamation block and along each transect a total of three randomly located one quarter square <br />meter clip plots were clipped at ground level. The three plots were clipped by life forms for <br />perennial grasses and perennial forbs. As recommended in the Division's Guidelines, annuals and <br />biennials and shrub production were not clipped. The three clip plots were then averaged into a <br />single transect datum for purposes of statistical analysis. Sample adequacy was initially <br />determined in the field based upon green weights following the sampling of 30 production <br />transects. Following clipping the harvested plant samples were dried in a drying oven at 30 <br />degrees C for a period of 48 hours to arrive at air dry weights and final sample adequacy <br />calculations were made. The revegetation production success standazd for the Raton Creek Mine <br />is 300 pounds of air dry forage per acre. <br />Shrub Density. Starting at each of the cover and production transect locations described' above <br />woody plant densities were calculated along the fifty-meter tape where the center of the tape as a <br />modified belt transect. The right-hand side of the transect was called Side A and the left-hand <br />side of the tape was called Side B. Data collected from each side were added into a transect value <br />which represents the number of shrubs sampled in the 100 square meter sample plot. These data <br />aze reported in the Results Section as to the number of shrubs per 100 square meters as well as <br />the number of shrubs per acre as outlined in the Permit. The revegetation woody plant density <br />success standard for the Raton Creek Mine is 500 stems per acre. <br />Species Diversity. The plant cover data collected along each sample transect yielded data <br />relative to absolute and relative cover as determined by the percentage of hits. These cover data <br />were then converted into percent composition or relative plant cover by species based upon the <br />total amount of plant cover encountered in each sample transect. The relative importance values <br />of plants growing on the reclaimed areas as outlined in the Permit, contain standards as to the <br />number of perennial grass species growing on the reclaimed areas to ensure that a monoculture of <br />a single plant or a few plants does not dominate the reclaimed azeas. ' <br />The species diversity standard in the Raton Creek Mine Permit requires that the reclaimed plant <br />community must be composed of at least three life forms with grasses contributing at least 60 <br />