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were then converted into percent composition or relative plant cover by species based upon the <br />total amount of plant cover encountered in each sample transact. The relative importance values <br />of plants growing on the reclaimed areas as outlined in the Permit, contain standards as to the <br />number of perennial grass species growing on the reclaimed areas to ensure that a monoculture <br />of a single plant or a few plants does not dominate the reclaimed areas. <br />The original species diversity standard in the Raton Creek Mine Permit required that the <br />reclaimed plant community must be composed of at least three life forms with grasses <br />contributing at least 60 percent, shrubs contributing at least 5 percent, and forts contributing at <br />least 10 percent of the total vegetative cover on the reclaimed sites. No single grass species is to <br />contribute more than 50 percent of the grass cover. Subsequent to the submission of the 2004 <br />reclamation monitoring report, Energy Fuels submitted a technical revision to the Division <br />requesting that the grass cover standard be lowered to 40 percent and the shrub cover standard be <br />eliminated as it is now inconsistent with the Division's current Vegetation Guidelines. The <br />assumption used in this report is that the Technical Revision has been approved using the criteria <br />contained therein. <br />Statistical Analysis of Data. As required by the Division's "Proposed Colorado Program <br />Amendments," it is not necessary to achieve sample adequacy for all reclamation monitoring if a <br />minimum of 15 plant cover and 30 woody plant density and production transacts have been <br />collected and these values exceed the success standard. Therefore a minimum of 15 plant cover <br />and 30 woody plant density and production transacts were collected. These data were then <br />analyzed for sample adequacy in order to determine whether the Division's requirements had <br />been satisfied. <br />Results <br />)Ftield Samoling_Dates. All of the data utilized in this evaluation were collected between June <br />20 - 24, 2005. This early in the growing season, essentially all of the plants were actively <br />growing and it is believed that the sampling was performed close to the period of optimum plant <br />growth, when the plant cover and production was near its peak. A total of 27 plant species were <br />identified in the 15 cover transacts and 30 shrub density transacts sampled in this evaluation. A <br />list of all of the plant species encountered during fire 2005 field sampling efforts is found in <br />Table 1, Raton Creek Mine Plant Species List. <br />Ssm~le Adequacy. A statistical analysis of the data collected to characterize the plant cover, <br />production, and shrub density is presented in Table 2, Raton Creek Mine -Sample Adequacy <br />Calculations. This comparison documents that a sufficient number of samples were collected to <br />describe the parameters of "allowable" plant cover at the 90 percent confidence interval and that <br />the minimum number of transacts to describe production and shrub density as found in the <br />Division's proposed new regulations was sampled. During a site inspection conducted by Mr. <br />Kent Gorham, it was confirmed that sampling under the Division's new regulations could stop at <br />I S cover, and 30 production and shrub density transacts. <br />