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• 2.04.10 VEGETATION INFORMATION <br />2.04.10 (1) Vegetation Map <br />The Vegetation Map, Appendix L -3 (archived), contains four mapping units: <br />1. Sandsage — Prairie sandreed Association (Valent Sand) <br />2. Sandsage — Prairie sandreed Association (Osgood Sand) <br />3. Saltgrass —Alkali sacaton Association <br />4. Prairie sandreed — Saltgrass Association <br />All of the Saltgrass- Alkali sacaton Association lies east of the Permit Area. Also, all of <br />the Prairie sand reed-Saltgrass Association, except a narrow finger of about eight acres <br />projecting into the northeast corner of Section 36, lies east of the Permit Area. <br />Consequently, we direct all further attention to the Sandsage- Prairie Sandreed <br />Association, which occurs on both Valent Sand and Osgood Sand soil series in this area. <br />Valent Sand occurs primarily on the uplands and Osgood Sand, primarily in the swales. <br />These two are mapped separately because the plant association appears to be a little.... <br />more productive on the Osgood Sand. Range condition is variable, from very poor on <br />abandoned fields in Section 36, to good in a few small areas. <br />• The aspect is predominantly sandsage. Prairie sandreed is the most obvious perennial <br />grass. Western and thickspike wheatgrasses, blue grama, sand dropseed, needle -and- <br />thread, indian ricegrass, sandhill muhly, and sand blue -stem are common associates. <br />Perennial forbs such as bractless stickleaf, textile onion, silver bladderpod, ceramicpod <br />milkvetch, prairie spiderwort, showy peavine, snowball, plains larkspur, prickly poppy, <br />evening primrose and western ragweed are more or less common. The association is <br />extremely weedy. Slimleaf goosefoot, whitestem mentzelia, prairie sunflower and <br />annual buckwheat prevail over most of the area. In addition, cheatgrass is abundant in <br />localized areas of disturbance. A species list is provided in Table 2.04.10(1). <br />2.04.10 (2) Reference Areas <br />The Vegetation Map (Appendix L -3) shows the location of two former reference areas, <br />one Valent Sand and one Osgood Sand. Each reference area covers about five acres, <br />about three of which was fenced. The use of these reference areas for vegetation <br />comparative purposes was discontinued with the approval of TR -37 (6/15/06). The map <br />also indicates the location of test plots used for Permit development. <br />2.04.10 (3) Adjacent Areas <br />. Adjacent areas have been mapped. The most important of these is the Saltgrass- Alkali <br />sacaton meadow Association along the east side of the Permit Area. <br />78 07/11 <br />