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• are over different numbers of sampled areas and different aged areas, but inasmuch as a range of <br />old to new reclamation of both the Wadge and Wolf Creek areas has been sampled each year, these <br />data may tend to suggest trends: <br /> <br />ARF~ <br />1987 Total Vegetation Cover <br />1988 1989 1990 <br />1991 <br />1 992 <br />ALL 72.1 70.9 48.1 60.2 65.4 60.1' <br />Wadge Pasture - - - 79.1 70.6 65.4 78.6 73.2 <br />Mountain Br. Reference 89.8 85.3 80.1 78.0 85.7 74.9 <br />Sagebrush Reference 88.0 76.3 63.2 72.1 78.6 70.0 <br />does not include Wadge Pasture '91 since no comparable area was <br />included in previous years' data. <br />The lower 1989 average vegetation cover reflected a change of 24 percentage points from the <br />vegetation cover measured in 1987. The change in cover from 1987 to 1989 for the Sagebrush <br />Reference Area was nearly the same as the reclaimed areas at approximately 25 percentage <br />points. In 1990, the overall average recovered by about 12 percent, while the Sagebrush <br />• Reference Area recovered by 9 percent. In 1991, the Sagebrush Reference Area cover <br />increased by over 6 percent, while the reclaimed area average went up by about 5 percent. In <br />1992, the Sagebrush Reference Area declined by about 11 percent while the overall average <br />dropped by about 8 percent. ;Thus, there has been a clear pattern of reclamation following the <br />. variation of cover in the Sagebrush Reference Area, which along with the prevalence of <br />sagebrush and snowberry suggests successional convergence of reclaimed areas on the <br />Sagebrush vegetation type. <br />On the other hand, the Mountain Brush Reference Area dropped only 9.7 percentage points from <br /> <br />1987 to 1989, but continued to drop another 2 percentage points in 1990. In 1991, the <br />Mountain Brush Reference Area cover increased by nearly a percent, and in 7992 the total <br />cover decreased by 13 percent. The 1992 decline relates partly to the fact the boundaries of the <br />reference area as sampled for 1992 were adjusted and included less of the very heavy oak and <br />serviceberry stands on the steep east-facing slopes; this is responsible for at least some of the <br />• 15 <br />