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indicates that the North Decline Mine Dewatering System Area is filling in nicely with both shrubs and <br />grasses. The western portion of the unit is dominated by Palmer penstemon. Fourwing saltbush, <br />cheatgrass, and perennial grasses are dominant on upper slopes, while cheatgrass remains prevalent on <br />the lower slopes. Greasewood and shadscale seedlings were abundant throughout the unit. <br />3.6 Roadside North Portal Facilities - Greasewood <br />The Roadside North Portal Facilities unit is split into two areas along the 4810' elevation contour and <br />each of the two areas are compared to either the Greasewood Reference Area or the Shadscale <br />Reference Area. The following section describes the area of the Roadside North Portal Facilities below <br />4810' elevation that is comparable to the Greasewood Reference Area. The upper side is discussed in <br />Section 3.11 below. <br />Ground cover of the Roadside North Portal Facilities - Greasewood unit consisted of 51.4% live <br />vegetation, 6.4% rock, 25.2% litter, and bare ground exposure of 17.0% (Table 3a). Perennial cover <br />across the unit averaged 26.8% with annual and biennial cover averaging 24.6%. Dominant taxa were <br />cheatgrass, greasewood, annual wheatgrass, and fourwing saltbush with 14.2%, 11.3%, 9.5%, and <br />8.5% average cover, respectively. Current annual herbaceous production in the Roadside North Portal <br />Facilities totaled 669 pounds per acre with the perennials contributing 152 pounds to forage production <br />(Table 5a). Woody plant density averaged 3,921 shrubs per acre comprised mostly of greasewood with <br />lesser amounts of shadscale and fourwing saltbush scattered throughout the unit (Table 6a). <br />This unit passes all of the proposed revegetation success criteria except the relative cover of cool- <br />season perennial grasses fell below the standard of 0.5% cover (Table 1). Qualitative analysis indicates <br />the revegetation at the Roadside North Portal Facilities is in average condition overall. This area exhibits <br />a diverse shrub population, with most individuals appearing robust and healthy. There is little grass <br />diversity in the understory due to the prevalence of cheatgrass. <br />3.7 2 West Portal - East <br />Ground cover of 2 West Portal - East area consisted of 20.2% live vegetation, 33.6% rock, 11.5% <br />litter, and bare ground exposure of 34.7% (Table 3b). Perennial cover across the unit averaged 13.8% <br />(down slightly from 13.9% in 2008) with annual and biennial cover averaging 6.4% (down from 12.0% in <br />2008). Dominant taxa were cheatgrass, rubber rabbitbrush, galleta (Hi/aria jamesii), and shadscale with <br />6.4%, 4.0%, 2.2%, and 1.9% average cover, respectively. Current annual herbaceous production in the <br />2 West Portal - East unit totaled 137 pounds per acre with the perennials contributing 100 pounds to <br />forage production (Table 5b). Woody plant density averaged 4,018 shrubs per acre comprised of a <br />diverse mixture of shadscale, fourwing saltbush, rubber rabbitbrush, greasewood, big sagebrush, <br />CEDAR CREEK ASSOCIATES, Inc. Page 20 Snowcap - Revegetation Evaluation - 2010