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Appendix A <br />State Regulation 1.04 Definitions: <br />"Historically used for cropland" means (1) lands that have been used for cropland for any 5 years or more <br />out of the 10 years immediately preceding the acquisition, including purchase, lease, or option, of the land for <br />the purpose of conducting or allowing through resale, lease or option the conduct of surface coal mining <br />operations; (2) lands that the Division determines, on the basis of additional cropland history of the <br />surrounding lands and the lands under consideration, that the permit area is clearly cropland but falls outside <br />the specific 5- years -in -10 criterion, in which case the regulations for prime farmland may be applied to include <br />more years of cropland history only to increase the prime farmland acreage to be preserved; or (3) lands that <br />would likely have been used as cropland for any 5 out of the last 10 years immediately preceding such <br />acquisition but for the fact of ownership or control of the land unrelated to the productivity of the land. <br />"Land use" means specific uses or management- related activities rather than the vegetation or cover of the <br />land. Land uses may be identified in combination when joint or seasonal uses occur. All of the land uses <br />defined below may include land used for support facilities which are adjacent to, or are an integral part of the <br />land use. Changes of land uses or uses from one of the following categories to another as a result of surface <br />coal mining and reclamation operations shall be considered as a change to an alternative land use which is <br />subject to approval by the Division. <br />"Cropland" means land used for the production of adapted crops for harvest, alone or in rotation with grasses <br />and legumes, and includes row crops, small grain crops, hay crops, nursery crops, orchard crops, and other <br />similar specialty crops <br />"Prime farmland" means land which has been historically used for cropland and that, in accordance with 7 <br />C.F.R. 657, as amended, has the best combination of physical and chemical characteristics of producing food, <br />feed, forage, fiber and oilseed crops, is also available for these uses and as interpreted by the USDA Soil <br />Conservation Service for Colorado. <br />"Productivity" means the vegetation yield produced by a unit area for a unit of time. <br />"Reclamation" means any activity or procedure required to achieve compliance with a reclamation plan <br />approved under 2.05 including any necessary work required for compliance with the Act and these Rules. <br />"Reclamation plan" means a plan submitted by an applicant in accordance with these Rules and the Act <br />which sets forth a plan for reclamation of the proposed surface coal mining operations pursuant to Rule 2 and <br />Section 34 -33 -111 of the Act. <br />"Reference area" means a land unit maintained under management approved by the Division for the purpose <br />of measuring vegetation ground cover, productivity and plant species diversity that is produced naturally or by <br />crop production methods. Reference areas must be representative of geology, soil, slope, and vegetation in the <br />permit area as determined by premining inventories. <br />"Soil survey" means field and related investigation, resulting in a map showing the geographic distribution of <br />different kinds of soils and an accompanying report that describes, classifies and interprets such soils for use. <br />Soil surveys must meet the standards of the National Cooperative Soil Survey. <br />10 <br />