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5. New soil and overburden stockpiles - Soil and overburden stockpiles continue to be established as new azeas aze opened. All stockpiling of soil and overburden is done adjacent to the mining pits so it can easily be redistributed in the pit when the mining is completed. The primary stockpiles for the most upland pits aze to the east of the pits. This is also where the most significant highwalls will occur. Stockpiling west of the pits is also done to a lesser extent in the upland azeas because the west side of the pits will almost be daylighted. Therefore, not as much soil or overburden will be needed there. At the lower elevation pits closer to the floodplain stockpiling is done al] around the pit, but primarily where it is expected a highwall of some kind will be established. In locations were the pit will daylight to the floodplain, little stockpiling is done as little soil or overburden will be needed there. Some of the older very large stockpiles have been reduced as backfilling continues in mined out pits. The practice of stockpiling adjacent to the pit rather than in discrete locations where "mountains" of material aze built seems to work much better and with higher efficiency and producing much less visual impact. Due to the highly variable nature of the sand deposit, creating huge stockpiles on particular locations may actually end up burying mineable sand that cannot be accessed until the entire stockpile is consumed in backfilling. As has been learned, one cannot tell where sand is and where it is not and therefore trying to anticipate where to place large stockpiles of soil and overburden carries considerable risk of limiting the operation. Stockpiling adjacent to the pit works far better. RECLAMATION ACTIVITY IN THE LAST YEAR: 1. Climatic summary ofprevious year - The previous years of 2003 and 2004 saw precipitation rise to about normal levels which greatly aided in the recovery of the native and reclamation vegetation after the 2001/2002 drought. In fact, during the spring of 2005 wildflower blooms on the native prairie was spectacular. Unfortunately, the abundant moisture also encouraged very intense weed growth in both bottomland and upland vegetation. This weed growth was undoubtedly a response to not only the available moisture but also the severe thinning of the vegetation during the 2001 and 2002 drought when growth of native grasses was minimal to nonexistent. Continued grazing during that drought period further thinned the native grass cover and created vast areas of a suitable annual weed habitat, especially for cheatgrass. Late in 2005, the weather patterns once again changed back to a drought pattern. Little precipitation fell as rain or snow throughout the fall and winter of 2004/2005. The polaz jet remained faz to the north which resulted in normal or faz above normal precipitation in the Pacific Northwest as well as in Montana and Wyoming. South of the Cheyenne Ridge, precipitation was essentially nonexistent and strong dry and warm westerly and northwesterly winds were frequent throughout this period. As a result, the drought status changed from essentially no drought in the middle of 2005 to severe drought by the spring of 2006. Soil moisture depletion reached neaz record levels and this applied to both topsoil and subsoil moisture depletion. Mazch, April and May remained extremely dry. This is normally the wettest time of the year, but very little precipitation was received. May, which should produce well over two inches of precipitation, saw essentially no rain or snow. As a result the drought status continued to decline to levels more intense than those seen in this azea during the Dust Bowl. Status report for 2006 (July 15, 2006) Page 8 of 13