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Iv. RESULTS The historic record vegetation community is comprised of an old field or pasture vegetation community. Several expressions of this type of community are present within the West Elk Mine permit area, notably, east of the study area and on primary terraces above the drainage of Sylvester Gulch. These agricultural and range communities are well defined, though intermixing occurs at the edges with the adjacent vegetation communities (predominantly oakbrush and aspen). Old field/pasture vegetation communities are comprised of one vegetative stratum, a low herbaceous layer (<0.5 meters) dominated by graminoids. Figures 2 and 3 provide illustrations of the character of the historic record vegetation community in 1997. As expected, native and introduced pasture and range grasses dominate the vegetation cover and herbaceous production of the historic record vegetation community. Organic litter from the graminoids provides additional significant cover on the ground surface. In 1997, with precipitation at slightly above normal mean levels, numerous native fort species were encountered during sampling. QUANTITATIVE SAMPLING RESULTS The general composition of the historic record vegetation community was that of a single story grassland. The single low herbaceous stratum was composed of herbaceous graminoids and forts. The dominant graminoid species was Bromus inermis (smooth brome), with two sub-dominant species; Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass) and Conwlwlus arvensis (field bindweed). Three lifeforms were encountered during the sampling of the historic record vegetation community; graminoids, forts, and a woody shrub. Fifteen individual plant species were identified during sampling. Five species were graminoids, nine were forts, and one was a woody shrub. Of the species encountered, thirteen were perennial and two were annual. All species encountered were identified as cool season. Eight species were native in origin and seven were introduced. None of the species encountered were designated undesirable weed species (by statute), although Conwlwlus arvensis is generally considered an undesirable weed. The plant species encountered and their characteristics are presented in Table 3. Vegetation Cover Total vegetation cover of the historic record vegetation community was 66.80 percent. Graminoids provided 49.73 percent mean cover (73.86% relative cover), forts represented 17.07 percent mean cover (25.99% relative cover), and one woody shrub accounted for 0.14 percent relative cover. A summary of the cover sampling data is presented in Table 4. _(}