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Production on all Irrigated Pasture reclaimed areas will consist of "desirable plant <br />species, as defined below, which will contribute at least 75% of the relative <br />production and will be comprised of seeded species or species of comparable <br />quality as livestock forage as compared to the Irrigated Pasture Reference Area <br />standard. As are recommended on page 7 of the Bond Release Guideline, the <br />production of all annuals and biennials will not be sampled in either the Irrigated <br />Pasture reclaimed areas or Irrigated Pasture Reference Area. In addition, all <br />Montrose County or San Miguel County listed noxious weed species will not be <br />counted toward the revegetation success standard for cover or production in any <br />reclaimed or reference areas. For the purposes of this demonstration, a statistically <br />adequate production sample will be taken, or with a minimum of 15 cover samples <br />and at least 30 production samples. <br />As are recommended on page 7 of the Vegetation Guideline and as directed by Mr. Dan <br />Mathews in an e-mail send to Mr. Ross Gubka, on 7 July 2010, the production plots on all of the <br />Irrigated Pasture Reference Area will involve the sampling of perennial herbaceous plants which <br />will be clipped by life forms which will include perennial grasses and perennial forbs. While on <br />the Irrigated Pasture reclaimed sites, the plants will be clipped by the categories of: seeded <br />grasses, seeded forbs, non - seeded desirable grasses, non - seeded desirable forbs. Annuals, and <br />biennials, undesirable grasses, undesirable forbs and noxious species will not normally be <br />clipped. <br />Our careful review of this for the NH2 Mine permit section and in the previous reclamation <br />monitoring reports resulted in our finding no specific definition of what constitutes a "desirable <br />species" although this term is used extensively in the NH2 permit and in previous reclamation <br />monitoring reports. Therefore, as used in the NHN Permit Application and correspondingly for <br />revegetation success of this area a "desirable species" is determined using the following criteria <br />as developed after consulting the following sources. Firstly, all species listed in the Office of <br />Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement - Plant Materials Handbook issued in May <br />1988 for Colorado that includes the 54 species of plants recommended by the NRCS for the <br />subsection entitled Colorado - Standards and Specifications - Pasture and Hayland Planting <br />Section 2.05.4(2)(e) Page 18 January 2012 <br />