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I• <br />- Seneca II-W 2002 <br /> <br />Phase III Herbaceous Production Standard <br />Vegetation Type Mean Herbaceous Production (Ib/ac) % of Aff. Area <br />Sagebrush/snowberry' 389.5 38.0 <br />Mountain Brushy 500.2 37.3 <br />Aspen Woodlands 1237.8 7.0 <br />Steep Mountain Brush 748 13.9 <br />Alkali Sage/West Whtgrs. 1,411 3.8 <br />1995 Reclamation Area 662.9 NA <br />Herbaceous production performance standard (weighted by percent of affected area) = 579 Ib/ac. <br />90 percent of performance standard = 0.9 x 1396 = 521 Ib/ac <br />Seneca II-W extended reference area values from data collected in 2002 <br />° Seneca II-WS extended reference area values from data collected in 1997; it is likely that values from <br />2002 would have been substantially lower, so the calculated standard is probably somewhat high. <br />As can be seen, the observed herbaceous production in the 1995 reclaimed area <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 <br />presence of annual /biennial species. The correction downward for "excess" <br />annual/biennial species in the 1995 cover data (above) was small to it is thought that the <br />production correction would be similarly small and that allowable production would still <br />easily exceed the standard. <br />The 1995 reclaimed areas sampled appear to be well capable of exceeding the <br />production performance standard, even in a very dry year. <br />Woody Plant Density <br />2002 data from the 1995 reclaimed area indicate the presence of about 227 woody plant <br />stems per acre. This number is substantially below the current standard of 1,000 stems <br />per acre. The 1995 reclaimed area was first sampled when it was 4 years old in 1999 <br />(ESCO 1999b). At that time woody plant density was 170 stems per acre, most of which <br />was snowberry and big sagebrush. Although the 2002 total was 277 stems per acre, <br />most of that average derived from the observed density in samples 8, 9, and 10 (see <br />Map 1) in which density averaged 931 stems per acre of snowberry and Woods' rose. <br />l0 <br />