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• located and oriented using a blind throw of a meter stick. Final location of <br />herbaceous production quadrats was accomplished by a blind throw of the <br />sampling hoop; cover and density sample transects were located and oriented <br />using a blind throw of the meter stick. At each cover/production/woody plant <br />density sampling location, the slope (percent) and aspect of the site (in <br />degrees not corrected for magnetic declination) were determined and <br />recorded, as was the orientation .of the transect (in degrees not corrected for <br />magnetic declination). <br />Cover Sampling <br />Cover data were collected using a point intercept method in which data were <br />recorded as interceptions of a point with plant species, litter, standing dead <br />plant material, soil or rock. Plant material produced during 1998 and still <br />standing was tallied by species. Litter was considered to be any organic <br />• material that had fallen, or and begun to fall to the soil surtace. Standing dead <br />was any dead plant material that was produced in previous years but which <br />was still standing and had not lodged or broken off to become litter. Inorganic <br />materials greater than 1 cm in diameter were considered rock. The. cover <br />sampling points were optically projected using aCover-Point Optical Point <br />Projection Device, developed by ESCO Associates. The 50 m transects were <br />randomly located and oriented in the reclaimed and reference areas. Fifty <br />paints were collected at each transect and distributed evenly along the <br />transect with a pair of points collected at each meter. The pair of points were <br />sampled on opposite sides of the transect at each meter mark, 0.5 m from the <br />transect. Fifteen cover transects were sampled in the 1991/1993 reclaimed <br />areas in 1998. <br />n <br />U <br />2 <br />