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The replacement of woody vegetation types with reclaimed areas dominated by herbaceous species <br />• will diversify regional habitat. The potential benefits of the reclaimed area forage resources to big <br />game have been described above. Big game use in similar areas increases during various times of the <br />year. Hungerford (1979) reported deer establish new home ranges in newly opened areas because of <br />increases in herbaceous forages. A small resident elk herd may have established itself in the vicinity of <br />the nearby Seneca II Mine. Similar year round elk use is reported at the Colorado Yampa Coal <br />Company (Johnson 1990). <br />The loss of cover formerly provided by the woody component will be offset by grading and creating <br />topographic diversity within the general postmine landscape. This has been successful in past <br />reclamation at surface trines. The occurrence of big game in the interior reclaimed areas at all times <br />of the day is relatively common. The shrub planting program will be oriented towards enhancement <br />of islands where shrub cover will develop in the larger open blocks. These plantings will encourage <br />localized areas of regeneration versus a stem for stem restoration of the woody plants on every acre. <br />The combination of grading to create topographic diversity and concentrated shrub plantings will aid <br />in mitigating the loss of shrub cover in the affected areas of the mine. <br />• Reclaimed areas will be irregularly shaped and relatively small in relation to regional vegetation and <br />habitat surrounding the mine area. Shrub islands will be established within reclaimed areas. These <br />areas, combined with large adjoining areas of undisturbed woody vegetation in and around the permit <br />area, will increase edge and improve overall habitat diversity. <br />The general criteria for revegetation of the haul road corridor are based on the following. The actual <br />surface area disturbance will be minimal (approximately 110 acres), thus making the regrading and <br />seeding of the area fairly simple. Areas of native vegetation dominated by sagebrush will be seeded to <br />species for foraging by livestock and big game. Over time, sagebrush will easily invade these seeded <br />areas from the surrounding stands of undisturbed sagebrush because of the relatively narrow width of <br />disturbance. Frischknecht (1963) and Mueggler (1956) found that sagebrush easily reinvades areas <br />that are disturbed and that seed will be contained in the soil as well as also being windbome into the <br />area. Reclaimed cropland will be incorporated into farming operations as soon as respreading of <br />topsoil occurs. Depending on the season and the location of the reclaimed area in a management <br />unit, it may either be seeded to a grain crop or incorporated into a summer fallow program. SCC will <br />conduct an evaluation of the production and cover data and determine if more data will need to be <br />• collected over the next few years. SCC plans to conduct herbaceous production and herbaceous <br />cover sampling along the haul road corridor, as required, during the 2006 annual monitoring. SCC <br />will sample in 2007 if it carrot be completed in 2006. <br />PR -02 5 Revised 01/06 <br />