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• 2,8 Planted Seed Establishment <br />Perusal of Table 18 indicates two indicators of seeding success. The first is the overall seeding <br />success rate or percent cover of seeded species divided by total percent plant cover. This indicator <br />averaged 48.5% for the 1996 revegetation, 26.9% for the 1999 revegetation, and 7.3% for the 2001 <br />revegetation. These values are exactly in line with expectation given the ages of the three groups of <br />revegetation. If annual bromes or other weedy taxa were overly problematic, the seeding success rates <br />would be substantially diminished. <br />The second indicator of seeding success is the "relative success" by species detemtined for each <br />year by dividing the percent of the seed base attributable to each species (based on number of seeds <br />planted) into the resulting percent ground cover documented by point-intercept sampling (Table 18 and <br />Charts 16 & 17j. For example, if species Z comprised 10% of the total number of seeds planted and then <br />exhibited 20% of the resulting ground cover, a relative suaess of 200% would be realized. Similarly, if <br />species Y comprised 10% of the total number of seeds planted but only exhibited 5°~ of the resulting <br />ground cover, relative success of SO% would be realized. <br />• Given this type of analysis, it has been Cedar CreeKs experience that grass spades with between <br />20% and 200% relative success are typically appropriate for the seed mix and are being planted at <br />reasonable retes. Taxa with less than 20% relative success may need assistance through special <br />handling (e.g., boosting the amount of seed in the mixture or adding an appropriate fertilizer or <br />supplement), or are candidates for deletion or substitution. Taxa with more than 200% relative success <br />should be revaluated for possible reduction of the amount of seed planted. Elevated success rates are <br />often indicative of over aggressive taxa that pn be detriments( to the overall community diversity. <br />Furthermore, dedsions regarding seed mbc manipulations should be based on multiple years of analysis <br />owing to dimatic and other influences that occur annually. <br />Similar "boundary" values for forts would be 5% and 150%. Fort populations typipliy require far <br />more seed to establish even minimal cover values, and most often, grass taxa are too competitive for all <br />but the most aggressive fort spades such as adapted introduced plants like alfalfa, sanfoin, and doer <br />milkvetch. Finally, "boundary' values for shrubs in young reclamation would be 2% and 200% with the <br />exception of sagebrush where the low-end success rate of 0.5% can be considered acceptable (owing to <br />the small size of planted seed). <br /> <br />u«,~on Energy Co. i Cdowyo M+°o Page 89 Revegetatlon Nbnftoring -2003 <br />