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of plant titter, rock, or bare ground. Plant material produced in the 2005 growing season was considered as living plant material and all plant material produced prior to the current growing season was considered to be litter. The 100 data points collected along each transect were then snmmari~ed into a single datum for purposes of statistical analysis. Absolute and relative plant cover, species diversity, and plant life forms were determined based upon the observations collected in sampling the plant cover. As outlined in the Division's Guidelines, all noxious weed cover and annual and biennial plant cover in excess often-percent of the total vegetative cover was excluded from the calculations of "allowable cover." Cryptograms and rock were also excluded in calculating the values of "allowable cover." The Raton Creek reclaimed rangelands cover success standard is based on "allowable cover." Page 521 of the Raton Creek Mine Permit states that the "allowable cover" standard is 25 %. The Permit does not contain separate standazds for herbaceous cover or litter standards. Production. Production at the Raton Creek Mine was sampled using a simple random statistical sampling approach, all of the production transect locations were randomly located within the reclamation block and along each traasect a total of three randomly located one quarter square meter quadrats were clipped at ground level. The three plots were clipped by life forms for perennial grasses and perennial forbs. As recommended in the Division's Guidelines, annuals, biennials and shrub production were not clipped. The three clip plots were then averaged into a single transect datum for purposes of statistical analysis. Sample adequacy was initially determined in the field based upon green weights following the sampling of 30 production transects. Following clipping the harvested plant samples were dried in a drying oven at 30 degrees C for a period of 48 hours to arrive at air dry weights and final sample adequacy calculations were made. The revegetation production success standard for the Raton Creek Mine is 300 pounds of air dry forage per acre. Shrub Density. Starting at each of the cover and production transect locations described above, woody plant densities were calculated along the fifty-meter tape where the center of the tape was considered as the center of the belt trausect. The right-hand side of the transect was called Side A and the left-hand side of the tape was called Side B. Data collected from each side were added into a transecl value which represents the number of shrubs sampled in the 100 square meter sample plot. These data are reported in the Results Section as to the number of shrubs per 100 square meters as well as the number of shrubs per acre as outlined in the Permit The original revegetation woody plant density success standard for the Raton Creek Mine is 500 stems per acre, however, upon a detailed review of the original vegetation baseline data indicate that this standard is totally unrealistic in that multiple stems originating from a single plant were counted and the original baseline data did not support the assumption that 500 woody plants per acre grew on this site prior to disturbance. Based upon this review a formal Technical Revision was recently submitted which establishes a shrub density standard of 167 stems per acre. Species Diversity. The plant wver data wllected along each sample transect yielded data relative to absolute and relative cover as determined by the percentage of hits. These cover data