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Cover in Percent <br /> 1984 Area 1988 Area Combined <br /> <br />Total Vegetation Cover 26.3 +/- 4.80 30.9 +/- 6.78 29.5 +/- 6.48 <br />Litter and Rock Combined 39.0 +/-10.41 40.7 +/- 9.63 40.2 +/- 9.62 <br />Bare Soil 34.7 +/-11.29 28.4 +/- 9.93 30.3 +/-10.47 <br />Total Ground Cover (Total <br />Vegetation + Litter) 65.3 +/-11.29 71.6 +/- 9.93 69.7 +/-10.47 <br />In 1992 the dominant species on the reclaimed areas were <br />thickapike wheatgrass (Agropyron dasystachyum), Russian wildrye (EZymus <br />junceus), biq sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and meadow foxtail <br />(Alopecurus pratensis). For the combined data for the two reclaimed <br />areas (Table 5), these four species accounted for 93.2 percent of the <br />cover by all species. In all, 26 species were observed in the reclaimed <br />areas. There are some differences between the areas reclaimed in 1984 <br />and 1988. In the 1984 area, green needlegrass (Stipa viridula) and big <br />sagebrush are more abundant than in the 1988 area. Russian wildrye and <br />thickapike wheatgrass are more abundant in the 1988 area than they are <br />in the 1984 area. The greater abundance of biq sagebrush in the 1984 <br />area may be related to the differences in ages of the two areas. Over <br />time, it is likely that big sagebrush will become more prevalent in the <br />1988 area. <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 />2), there has been a high level of consistency among the four years of <br />-3- <br />