2008-03-27_REPORT - C1980005 (3)

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INTRODUCTION Quantitative sampling of reclaimed areas at Seneca Coal Company's (SCC) Seneca II Mine was undertaken in Jtaly 2007 by ESCO Associates to facilitate SCC's continuing monitoring of the progress of the~;e areas in relation to revegetation performance standards. 2007 data collection was pursued to~nrard the end of providing datasets to document vegetation conditions in reclaimed areas that were two and four years old as per interim monitoring requirements set forth in the Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety (CDRMS) permit. METHODS Interim Sampling The two-year-old reclamation (seeded in 2005) totaled 15 acres. A total of five samples were distributed in th~~ 2005 reclamation since at the rate of one sample per 10 ac, one or two samples would fail to provide useful information. The four-year-old reclamation (seeded in 2003) covered 133.6 acres anti was thus provided with fourteen sample locations. These locations are shown on Map 1 "2007 Ini:erim Monitoring Sample Locations." Reference Area Sampling The Mountain Elrush and Sagebrush reference areas were sampled to provide data for comparison with reclaimed area data. Reference Area sampling locations are shown on Map 2, "2007 Reference Area Monitoring Sample 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 2007 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 :Mill standing and had not lodged or broken off to become litter. Inorganic materials greater than 1 c;m 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 at a distance of 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 dividing the number of interceptions for a particular species or ground cover 1