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Cover in Percent <br />1984 Area 1988 Area Combined <br />Total Vegetation Cover 23.0 +/- 3.74 33.4 +/- 5.84 30.3 +/- 7.15 <br />Litter and Rock Combined 48.0 +/- 9.55 43.0 +/- 6.26 44.5 +/- 7.51 <br />Bare Soil 29.0 +/- 9.36 23.6 +/- 5.88 25.2 +/- 7.30 <br />Total Cround Cover (Total <br />Vegetation + Litter) 71.0 +/- 9.36 76.4 +/- 5.88 74.8 +/- 7.30 <br />In 1993 the dominant species on the reclaimed areas were <br />thickepike wheatgraes (Agropyron dasystachyum), Russian wildrye (Elymua <br />junceus), big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentate) and western wheatgrase <br />(Agropyron smithii). For the combined data for the two reclaimed areas <br />(Table 5), these four epeciee accounted for 92.4 percent of the cover by <br />all epeciee. In all, 25 epeciee were observed in the reclaimed areas. <br />There are some differences between the areas reclaimed in 1984 and 1988. <br />In the 1984 area, green needlegrass (Stipa viridula) and big sagebrush <br />are more abundant than in the 1988 area. Russian wildrye and thickepike <br />wheatgraaa are more abundant in the 1988 area than they are in the 1984 <br />area. The greater abundance of big sagebrush in the 1984 area may be <br />related to the differences in ages of the two areas. Over time, it ie <br />possible that big sagebrush will become more prevalent in the 1988 area, <br />however the cover data collected over the past five years suggests that <br />big sagebrush ie increasing in cover very slowly. <br />Summaries for mean cover for the years 1989-1992 for each of the <br />reclaimed areas and for the two areas combined are presented in Tables <br />2, 4 and 6. When examining these data it is important to recognize that <br />in 1991 the area was accidentally grazed by cattle prior to the time <br />when the cover data were obtained. For the area seeded in 1984 (Table <br />-3- <br />