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concentration areas were gathered from belt transects located and oriented randomly. In the background <br />woody plant density portions of BRB -5, thirty sample points in 2011 and fifty -three sample points in 2012, <br />were located and sampled for woody plant density in conjunction with cover and /or production. The belt <br />transects (i.e. elongate sample plots) were 2 m x 50 m in dimension and randomly oriented from the <br />origin. Within each belt transect, all living trees and full shrubs whose root crowns emerge within the plot <br />boundaries were counted by species. Sample adequacy of the collected woody plant density data from <br />BRB -5 was determined as follows: <br />Climatic Data <br />nmin <br />(st) <br />(dx) <br />Where: <br />n the number of sample points needed in a given vegetation type to be capable <br />of detecting a 15% reduction in the mean with 90% confidence; <br />s = standard deviation (n -1); <br />t = the t statistic (one - tailed, 90% confidence; n -1 degrees of freedom; if n >30, <br />t = 1.282 for purposes of this study); <br />d = acceptable amount of inherent variability to be identified between the sample <br />mean and the true population mean (0.15 for purposes of this analysis); <br />x = sample mean for woody plant density data. <br />The criterion for formal judgment of the adequate stocking of woody plants on the Seneca II site is as <br />follows: <br />Overall average density ? 100 stems per acre with at least 5% of the BRB block possessing >_ 1000 stems <br />per acre. <br />Seneca Coal Company (SCC) has historically provided precipitation data for the Seneca II and IIW Mines, <br />however 2011 and 2012 data was not available as of November 2012, and therefore 2011/2012 <br />precipitation data were obtained from the NOAA administered Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) <br />for the nearby town of Hayden (Station 053867). Since the long -term average for the Seneca IIW mine <br />exists for only 26 years, the long -term average monthly precipitation data from Hayden (Station 053867) <br />was used as an appropriate base for comparison. Temperature data from the Hayden station was used <br />as well. <br />11 <br />