Laserfiche WebLink
As can be seen in Figure 2, the observed herbaceous production in the 2002 reclaimed areas <br />• exceeded the production standard. The listed reclaimed area production figures are not <br />corrected as they would need to be in actual Phase III bond release testing for the presence of <br />annual biennial species. The correction downward for "excess" annual(biennial species in the <br />2002 cover data (above) was about 49%. Subtracting this fraction from total herbaceous <br />production (1818 Ib/ac) would still leave 920 Ib/ac, well above the standard. <br />Woody Plant Density <br />2004 data from the 2002 reclalmed area indicate the presence of only 12 woody plant stems per <br />acre. The extremely dry conditions of the period of 2000 to 2002 are probably just not consistent <br />with initial establishment of many perennials. The paucity of shrubs hopefully will change in <br />ensuing years. <br />Species Diversity and Composition <br />The 2002 reclaimed area is young of course, and not unexpectedly possessed of substantial <br />presence of annual weedy species. There is nonetheless a substantial portion of vegetation <br />cover that is comprised of native perennial cool season grasses (Figure 5). <br />The distribution of species density by lifeform (Figure 4) shows that the 2002 reclaimed areas are <br />• more similar to the reference areas than would appear to be the case from the lifeform distribution <br />of relative cover (Figure 5). This is important in that it shows that the basic components of the <br />original ecosystem have indeed been returned and that it is a matter of relative proportions that <br />separates the reclaimed from the native vegetation. Perhaps the largest difference with regard to <br />species density is in the native perennial forbs category, where native areas (at least the most <br />extensive native types of Mountain Brush and Sagebrush) tend to have half again to twice as <br />many species of native perennial forbs per 100 sq.m. Total species density in the 2002 reclaimed <br />areas is very close to that of the Sagebrush Seneca II-W Extended Reference Area and only a <br />few species per 100 sq.m. lower than the Mountain Brush Extended Reference Area (Table 11). <br />J <br />10 <br />