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reclamation plan and the requirements of the postmining land use. Overall, cover and diversity <br />• generally appear adequate throughout the various stands. Woody plant establishment continues to <br />be hampered by browsing by wild ungulates. <br />Note that we sepazated the data by reclamation year for the purpose of monitoring interest. <br />Monitoring for bond release would not sepazate the reclamation azeas by year, rather, it would be <br />our intent that all azeas would be combined together as one potential sampling block and randomly <br />sampled. <br />C. Woo Plant Density <br />During 1999, a review of woody plant establishment areas was conducted. The data is collected by <br />counting woody plants within 6 x 100 foot belt transects placed randomly throughout the shrub <br />establishment azeas. Many of the treatment azeas have been wholly or partially fenced with an 8 - <br />10 foot tall fence exclosure to eliminate the browsing by elk. The data summaries can be found in <br />Exhibit 4. <br />The data tells only part of the story. While woody plant survival is, as expected, higher inside of <br />the exclosures, overall vigor of woody plants located within the exclosure is pleb greater than <br />those located outside the fence. This suggests that continued browsing by wild ungulate species <br />will continue to compromise our efforts to establish woody plants on reclaimed azeas. <br />• <br /> <br />~z <br />