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-2- <br /> II. DESCRIPTION OF WORK <br /> A. Stipulation No. 16 <br /> 1 . Technical Approach <br /> To determine if it is necessary to spread four feet of soil over the <br /> coal processing refuse, Native Plants would sample previously reclaimed areas , <br /> generally in accordance with the recommendations submitted to Mid-Continent <br /> Resources by the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Division (MLRD) on October <br /> 12, 1982. The only variables to be evaluated here with respect to vegetative <br /> response would be date of planting and depth of soil cover. <br /> Randomly selected samples will be separately collected from four areas , <br /> each with a different date (age) of planting: 1977 (after August 3) , 1978, <br /> 1979, and 1980; a grid system will be used in sample selection. Within each <br /> of these areas , an attempt will be made to demarcate at least 3 soil depth <br /> classes; these classes will span the complete range of soil depths that <br /> occur on these previously reclaimed areas. Whether or not soil depth classes <br /> can be readily segregated in the field over large enough areas to permit <br /> random sampling remains to be seen. In any event, soil depth measurements <br /> will also be taken at periodic intervals along the cover transects and at five <br /> points within and around the production plots (see Figure 1 ) . <br /> For each soil depth class in each sampling area, both cover and production <br /> will be sampled. Herbaceous cover (total and by species) will be measured <br /> using the line-intercept method. Transect length will be set at one value <br /> (between lm and 10m) for all sampling, depending upon a pre-sampling field <br /> assessment of soil depth homogeneity within each sampling area. The constraint <br /> imposed on transect length will be the avoidance of mixing areas with sub- <br /> stantially different soil depth within the same transect. <br />