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Both the 1985 and 1986 Reclamation Areas had seven perennial species within the <br />specified relative importance parameters. The 1985 Reclamation Area had four warm <br />season grasses, one cool season grass, one forb, and one succulent, while the 1986 <br />Reclamation Area had five warm season grasses, one wol season grass, and one forb. <br />Both areas met all the final bond release requirements for species composition. The <br />1987 Reclamation Area contained ten species with the requisite relative importance <br />values. These included four warm season grasses, three cool season grasses, two forbs, <br />and one succulent. The 1987 Reclamation Area also meets the final bond release <br />criterion for species composition. <br />As in previous yeazs, the Osgood Sand Reference Area did not meet the final bond <br />release species composition standard in 1997. The Osgood Sand Reference Area <br />contained four species with the requisite relative importance values, of which two were <br />warm season grasses, one was a cool season grass, and one a woody shrub. <br />As we have done since 1994, we question the fairness of the existing species <br />composition success standard, and recommend a re-evaluation of the standard based on <br />the four years of monitoring data which represent a full range of moisture and growth <br />conditions in this area. It is further recommended that the regulatory agency rethink <br />the exclusion of annual species (particularly forbs) in the analysis of species <br />composition success. As demonstrated in the monitoring for this site, annual species <br />• have an important role in the composition of the native and reclaimed vegetation <br />communities. These lifeforms and species may be ephemeral from yeaz to year and <br />opportunistic in their growth mode, but they serve to provide diversity within both the <br />native and revegetated communities, and their role should not be arbitrarily denigrated <br />based on seasonality. <br />COMPARISON OF VEGETATION SAMPLING: 1994-1997 <br />Savage and Savage has been monitoring the Osgood Sand Reference Area and the <br />1985, 1986, and 1987 Reclamation Areas since 1994 (Savage and Savage, 1994, 1995, <br />1996). Based on a cursory review of Table 11 and Figure 3 it would appear logical to <br />assert that vegetation cover of the Osgood Sand Reference Area and the 1985, 1986, <br />and 1987 Reclaimed Areas is tied to the amount of precipitation received during the <br />growing season in any given year. It would also seem that the Reclaimed Areas aze <br />more attuned and sensitive to the precipitation regime than the Osgood Sand Reference <br />Area. This hypothesis was evaluated statistically for the years 1494 through 1997 at <br />the Osgood Sand Reference Area and the Reclaimed Areas (see Appendix). Statistical <br />analysis of linear correlation and regression revealed that while a relatively high <br />correlation existed between the January-July precipitation regime and total and <br />herbaceous cover in the Osgood Sand Reference Area, the correlation was not <br />statistically significant. The same statistical analysis for the Reclaimed Areas yielded a <br />• different result. Correlation and lineaz regressions between total vegetation cover, <br />herbaceous vegetation cover, and January-July precipitation resulted in statistically <br />-16- <br />