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Coal Processing Waste Pile <br /> Scope of Work <br /> Herbaceous cover and production will be measured on the 2:1 slopes of the <br /> coal processing waste pile. Only those areas seeded prior to 1981 will be <br /> sampled. Woody plant density need not be sampled. Either cover or production <br /> data must be collected by species. There will be two variables in the <br /> collection of this data; depth of topsoil and age of vegetation. Topsoil <br /> depths will have to be tested prior to vegetation sampling. Sampling will <br /> then be done by three soil depth classifications in each age group (such as <br /> 0-6 inches, 6-12 inches, and greater than 12 inches) . The areas sampled by <br /> soil depth increments will be determined following the collection of soil <br /> depth data. <br /> Herbaceous cover will be sampled by the line intercept or point frame(point <br /> intercept) method with a minimum of 50 points per sampling unit. Four units <br /> will be sampled in each soil depth group in each age group. Each sampling <br /> unit will be located randomly by use of a grid system. <br /> Production will be sampled by clipping all the current years growth above <br /> a height of 5 mm in a 0.25m2 quadrat. Five randomly located quadrats will <br /> be clipped in each subsection of each age group. Following collection, the <br /> clipped material will be oven dried at 1050c for 24 hours, then weighted <br /> to the nearest 0.1 gram. <br /> The cover and production data will then be compared to the aspen shrubland <br /> reference area data to determine if success standards can be met. The cover <br /> and production data will be analyzed using a two-way analysis of variance. <br /> The data will be tested to determine if there are any significant differences <br /> between soil depths and between age groups, and also whether there is a <br /> significant interaction between age and soil depth. <br />