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Quantitative sampling of reclaimed and reference areas at Seneca Coal Company's (SCC) Seneca II Mine was undertaken in July 2004 by ESCO Associates to facilitate SCC's continuing monitoring of the progress of the reclaimed areas in relation to revegetation pertormance standards. Methods, sample areas, and sample sizes were those specified by SCC. METHODS Reclamation Unifs and Sampling Locations The reclamation sampling units sampled at the Seneca II Mine in 2004 are shown on Map 1, "2004 Vegetation Monitoring Locations'. Areas sampled in 2004 were 1997, 2000, and 2002 Reclamation Areas, Wadge Pasture and PECOCO Pasture grazing units, and the reference areas. Reference Area Sampling The Mountain Brush and Sagebrush reference areas were sampled to provide data for comparison with reclaimed area data. A potential reference area first sampled in 2001 corresponding to the Alkali Sagebrush /Western Wheatgrass vegetation type that is prevalent on • the heavy soils of the area was again monitored in 2004. Reference Area sampling locations are shown on Map 1, "2004 Vegetation Monitoring Locations". Cover Sampling Cover data were collected along 50 m transects using apoint-intercept method in which data were recorded as interceptions of a point with either plant species, litter, standing dead plant material, soil, or rock. Plant material produced during 2004 and still standing was tallied by species. Litter was considered to be any organic material that had fallen, or had begun to fall to the soil surface. Standing dead was any dead plant material that was produced in previous years but which was still standing and had not lodged or broken off to become litter. Inorganic materials greater than 1 cm in diameter were considered rock. The cover sampling points were optically projected using aCover-Point Optical Point Projection Device developed by ESCO Associates. The 50 m transects were randomly located and oriented in the reclaimed and reference areas. One hundred points were collected along each transect. A pair of points were collected every meter with points sampled on opposite sides of each transect, 0.5 m from the transect. First hit interceptions were used to calculate absolute top layer foliar cover (see COVER column in data tables) by dlviding the number of interceptions for a particular species or ground cover type by the total number of points taken (100). First hit relative vegetation cover was calculated by dividing first hit absolute cover for each species by the total first hit vegetation cover. All-layer