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U SHRUB ESTABLISHMENT STUDY: Technical Progress Report Prepazed by: M. W. Paschke Department of Forest, Rangeland and Watershed Stewardship Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523-1478 December 8, 2003 s The shrub establishment study is being funded by the Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology (CDMG) and conducted by Colorado State University. The study was initiated in the fall of 2000 at three coalmines in northwest Colorado: Colowyo, Seneca II, and Trapper. The purpose of this report is to document progress since our last report in March 2003. More detailed analyses of 2003 data will be provided in the Annual Progress Report. Between April and December 2003 there were two major activities completed on this project. The first was vegetation data collection at each mine from August 12 to August 14, 2003. The second major activity was data entry, validation and preliminary analysis, which were completed in December 2003. During the August vegetation sampling, each demonstration plot was sampled for vegetative cover by species, bare ground, rock and litter using the same methods employed in 2001 and 2002. As in 2002, sampling was stratified in the fenced and non-fenced areas in order to examine the effects of game exclusion. Apoint-intercept method was used to estimate cover. Within each fenced (five plots) and unfenced (five plots) plot at Colowyo and Trapper (Figures 1 and 2), five 50-m transects were randomly located. One of the five transects in each plot at Trapper mine was stratified in mycorrhizae inoculation strips in order to test for a treatment response. Cover data was collected every one meter along each transects (250 cover points per plot). At the Seneca II mine, where plots are considerably smaller (Figure 3), we used three 30- m transects and collected cover data every one meter (90 cover points per plot). Only three plots at the Seneca R mine were divided into subplots by a fence. In addition to cover sampling along these transects, we estimated shrub establishment and shrub height in each demonstration plot within O.SmZ quadrants along each transect. At Colowyo and Trapper, the quadrants were located every 10 m along the transect, for a total of 6.0 mZ per plot. In the smaller plots at Seneca II mine quadrants were located every 10 m along each 30-m transect for a total sampling area of 4.5 m2 per demonstration plot. Within each of these quadrants all shrubs were identified to species and heights of individuals were recorded. At the Seneca II mine shrub tubelings were planted in September of 2000 in select demonstration plots. To evaluate the success of this operation, survival of transplants was quantified during the vegetation sampling. Shrub survival within each demonstration plot was estimated by following rows of transplants and scoring seedlings as either alive or dead. A minimum of 25% of the transplant rows within each plot was surveyed as such. During the vegetation sampling, voucher specimens of plant taxa were collected for positive identification and for azchival in the Restoration Ecology Lab Herbarium. Permanent